


Tasers and Mischief

by NephilimEQ



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Darcy Lewis & Loki Friendship, F/M, Firefight, Fluff, Humor, Incomplete, Infinity War Part 2, SO MUCH SARCASM, Sarcasm, Slow Burn, Slow Burn Darcy/Loki, because the second movie hasn't come out yet, trying to match up timelines, turns into something more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-07-13 18:57:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16023968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NephilimEQ/pseuds/NephilimEQ
Summary: It's the beginning of Infinity War, Part 2. Loki, of course, is not dead. However, he has to go to someone for help that he never thought he would go to: a certain ex-girlfriend of his brother's. Darcy is told to keep an eye on him as they make a plan to save the world. He's pretty cute for a guy who tried to take over the world.





	1. Even Gods Bleed

**Author's Note:**

> BEAR WITH ME, PLEASE. This is a plot bunny that hit me and is chewing on my ankle bones and won't shut the fork up! I don't have time for this...but I am making the time. Darcy Lewis is my soul animal, by the way. This story is consuming me as I write this author's note...
> 
> I have to finish this before the next movie comes out. Dear god.
> 
> HELP!

 

Darcy tucked herself further into her coat as Jane adjusted the long, home-made antenna. It was three in the morning, about thirty-eight degrees out, and they were on the roof of an abandoned gas station that Jane had commandeered for their (her) research. Darcy was only there because due to their unfortunate circumstances, they had become permanent semi-homeless roommates over the past three years or so, making them more carmates than roommates, to be honest.

During that time, they had gotten closer. Darcy had learned more about the science stuff and became a bit more competent, and Jane had turned into the beginnings of a crazy cat lady.

Darcy knew the only reason why she was acting that way was because that Jane felt guilty about cutting ties with Thor, and Darcy, being the true friend that she was, continually reminded her of it.

“So, this is all for a long-distance booty call?” she asked, munching on a Dorito, ignoring how cold the tips of her fingers were. Doritos were always worth the pain.

Jane rolled her eyes.

“Again, not a booty call, Darce. It’s a long-range Einstein-Rosen Bridge detector, so we can pick up if anyone is using it to travel between worlds…”

“Like your boy-toy that you dumped for no logical reason.”

Jane glared at her as she pushed some brightly colored buttons that Darcy had no clue what they did, and snapped out, “You _know_ I didn’t do that because I wanted to. He has responsibilities, and he’s a _god,_ and he’s going to outlive me, and I’m not going to stay around so that his heart can be broken by my death. Besides, I’m just a liability to him…”

Darcy raised an eyebrow…and crunched down another chip.

“Really? Sure it isn’t _you_ who’s trying to keep from getting heartbroken?”

Jane’s mouth tightened into a firm line, and Darcy immediately knew that she’d said something out loud that she shouldn’t have. It was a fault that came along with her scary observation of people’s personalities and psychologies. She had been a political science major for a _reason_ , after all, which involved understanding the motives of leaders throughout history. And, unfortunately, along with her loud mouth and her ability to keep her observations to herself, she had a tendency to get herself in trouble with it. Like just now.

Settling back into her squeaky, metal lawn chair, she looked up at the stars, still finding them beautiful even after everything that they’d found out about what was actually out there. More enemies than friends…but that did not deter her from still feeling a quiet sense of wonder when she looked at them.

Jane continued to fiddle with the equipment, and then looked back up at the antenna.

Darcy couldn’t help but wonder if Jane saw what she saw…or if she just saw rainbow bridges and mathematical and physics equations flashing in front of her eyes.

Either way, it didn’t really matter. Something large was going down in New York, along with half-way around the world, both of them knew. They watched the news and still had a strong wi-fi connection, even in the middle of the desert (thank god for Jane’s tech skills, Darcy couldn’t have survived without access to Candy Crush), and they had both decided that the only thing they could do was let the heroes take care of it.

They weren’t exactly in the same league as them.

Well, Darcy admitted to herself, that wasn’t _entirely_ true. Jane was the leading scientist in the world on Asgard technology and understood it better than either Tony Stark, or even that younger sister of that billionaire king that Darcy kept on seeing on the news. But no one needed an expert on Asgard technology. They needed heroes. Which they weren’t.

Sticking her hand back into her bag of cool ranch, she looked back up at the sky and then pulled out her new phone and picked an appropriate song for the moment.

 _Breaking Up Is Hard to Do_ , by Neil Sedaka played loudly over her phone’s speakers, and Darcy couldn’t help but grin as Jane looked over at her and raised an eyebrow, trying to look firmly annoyed…and then snorted and broke up, her giggling infectious, as Darcy made faces at her.

Feeling in a mood, Darcy stood up, put her chips to the side, and grabbed Jane’s hand and dragged her to the center of the roof, saying, “Dance with me, I’m bored,” and Jane complied, even while shaking her head and laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Very badly, they started dancing.

 _“They say that breaking u-up i-is ha-ard to do-o, now I kno-ow, I kno-ow that it’s tru-ue,”_ Sedaka crooned and Darcy sang along, spinning her friend in a wide circle and bringing her back to the loop of her arms, while Jane tried and failed to keep from breaking out in complete laughter at how ridiculous her intern was, but, hey, she knew what she was getting into when she’d decided to keep her like a pet. And Darcy didn’t mind, even though she constantly complained and acted like she did.

Feeling a bit silly, as she brought Jane back from another twirl, she caught her in her arms and dipped her…

…and then there was a sudden flash of familiar rainbow light and something crashed right on top of Jane’s equipment. It was large, wearing black, green, and gold, and looked to be human…and then it groaned.

Darcy screamed and dropped Jane, immediately fumbling in her coat for her taser, which she had started keeping on her at all times ever since the Thor incident. Without even thinking, as the being, person, _whatever_ it was started to move to stand up, she pressed her finger on the trigger even as he said, “Jane, I--”

He was then suddenly convulsing, whatever he was about to say cut off by ten thousand volts of electricity shooting through his body, and then fell onto his back.

Jane slowly got up, complaining, “Okay, that hurt. And why do you still have…” Her question drifted off as she looked at the person on the roof in front of her. “…your taser,” she finally finished.

“Sorry!” Darcy immediately apologized. “I figured if a taser can stop a god of thunder, it can stop just about anything else, right? I just, you know, panicked!” she added, wide eyed, and then looking a bit closer at who or what she had just tasered. “Again, sorry…”

Jane, however, gave her a wry grin and said, “Oh, you don’t have to be sorry. This one deserves it. Trust me.”

Darcy gave her a look, adjusting her glasses.

“Wait, are you telling me you _know_ this…thing? Person? Whatever they are?”

Jane rolled her eyes and answered in an annoyed tone, “Unfortunately, yes. You know Loki? The one who tried to destroy New York?” Darcy’s eyes widened, and Jane nodded. “Yeah. That’s Loki,” Jane said, gesturing a hand in his direction. “He’s also Thor’s adopted brother. And,” she added, looking confused, “He’s supposed to be dead. At least, the last I heard…”

“Uh, why the hell is he _here?_ ” Darcy exclaimed, holding onto her taser slightly tighter than before, glancing down at his body, where it lay sprawled in front of her…and her music was still playing.

“I don’t _know_ ,” she growled out, looking over her damaged antenna. “And now I have no way of finding out how because he’s destroyed my _equipment_!” she whined, looking entirely frustrated as she uselessly flipped levers and pressed buttons.

Darcy stared for a long while. Jane continued to try and find something of hers that was still working. She finally had the sense to turn off her music, which was almost humorous at how incongruous it was with their situation.

Loki moaned and slowly moved to sit up…and Darcy’s finger twitched. He convulsed again, and Jane actually looked upset this time.

“Seriously, Darce? We kind of need some answers, and as much as I am enjoying seeing him writhing in pain, I’m pretty sure that he’s the only one that can _give_ us those answers,” she reluctantly admitted, not so gently kicking him in the knee as she walked past him. “Plus, as much as I hate to say this…he _is_ a god of sorts. He might just be able to help with the whole end of the world situation, as long as he’s not the one causing it,” she added, looking back down at the green and gold clad god of mischief.

Darcy nodded and moved her taser back to her pocket…and then reached over and picked up her Doritos from the table. She was still hungry, after all.

This time, as Loki sat up, they waited for him to come to.

“As pleasant as that was,” he groaned out, clutching his side, “We have a bit of a situation here. The kind where we have a bigger threat than myself…”

Jane rolled her eyes, clearly not believing him, and snarked out, “You know, I’m kind of having a lot of trouble believing that,” and shoved a small piece of equipment into her bag. Apparently, she had found something that hadn’t been destroyed. “Luckily,” she added, turning around to face him, “I have seen the most recent footage and know that not even _you_ could do something so…horrible.”

At that point, Darcy noticed the blood covering the front of him and walked over to him and said, “Dude, you’re covered in blood. You injured?”

He tried to struggle to his feet, but failed miserably, so she reached out a hand…and he simply stared at it.

“And how do I know that you’re not going to use that _delightful_ device on me a third time?” he loftily inquired, and Darcy snorted and replied, “Hey, you don’t, Mischief, but seeing as we’re the ones that you decided to come to for help, you don’t seem to have much of a choice about the whole trust-issue thing…”

His eyes caught hers…and then he reluctantly nodded and reached up and gripped her hand, letting her help him up.

“Fair enough,” he said as he righted himself, and then let out a pained groan. “As to your question, Miss…?”

“Lewis. Darcy Lewis.”

He tilted his head in her direction.

“Miss Lewis. I am most indeed injured. Quite badly, as a matter of fact,” he added, swaying on his feet, holding his hand to his side, where red was still blossoming under his fingers. He looked down at it and then stared up at the sky and cursed. “You wouldn’t happen to have any…Midgardian medical facilities…that can help someone of my kind?”

Darcy shook her head.

“We got a first aid kit in the car and someone who got nice and intimately physical with your brother, but that’s as close as it gets, Lokes…”

His eyebrow shot up at her nickname and he hissed out through teeth gritted in pain, “If you dare call me by that... _horrendous_ …appellation again, I will be forced to…” He almost fell over at that point, and Darcy reluctantly shoved an arm under his shoulders and grunted as his weight fell against her, forcing her to drop her bag of Doritos.

Snorting, she said, “Yeah, your threats aren’t all that effective when you can’t even finish them, Lokes.” He glared at her…and then his eyes started to lose focus, his body swayed, and Darcy gasped out, “Jane, I could use some help here! Mister tall-glass-of-water is sort of ridiculously heavy!”

Jane came over just as reluctantly as she had and slid an arm around his other side at the perfect time as he fell against both of them…and then Jane let out a low grunt, as well.

“Holy shit, he’s heavier than Thor!”

Darcy couldn’t help but smirk and say, “And you would know, wouldn’t you, Jane?” and Jane rolled her eyes, and as they moved him forward, over to the cheap metal chair, she drawled, “Darcy, now is not the time for this. We kind of have a bleeding god on our hands here.”

“Fair enough,” she answered, unintentionally echoing Loki’s words from a few moments before.

Between the two of them, they managed to drag him over to the chair, and then dropped him into it as best they could. The metal made loud noises of distress under his weight. They both looked at it, expecting it to collapse at any second…but it held. Jane let out a sigh of relief. Darcy huffed. She might have been thin, but she wasn’t particularly fit, unlike Jane, who ran and did yoga, making Darcy look like a total slob in comparison.

“So…how do you fix a bleeding god?” Darcy asked.

Jane let out an aggravated sound and threw her hands up in the air, letting them fall heavily against her sides.

“I have no fucking clue.”

“Jane!”

“Well, I don’t!” she snapped back, looking back at her destroyed equipment. “And any chance I had of contacting anyone has just been shot to hell because of him! Ugh.” She moved over to the edge of the roof and sat on it, and Darcy joined her.

There was a long silence, punctuated by the labored breathing of Loki, who was looking paler by the minute.

Finally, seeing that Jane was becoming sort of useless, she stood up and said, “Well, I’m gonna go grab your first aid kit from the car and then attempt to save this god’s life, which, knowing my skills, probably isn’t going to turn out too well, but you make do with what you have.” She turned and walked over to the metal ladder that they’d climbed up that was attached to the side of the building, and clumsily made her way down, trying not to think too hard about what was going on.

Desperately.

 


	2. Bitter Truth

When she came back up, awkwardly lugging the kit in her arms, it looked as though Loki had fallen asleep. Good. That made her job all that much easier.

She sat down on the edge of the chair, certain it could hold her weight since it could hold his, and looked at what she had to work with. She had a brownie badge in first aid, after all. Sure, she hadn’t used it in thirteen years, but she could figure it out. She looked at the wound in his side.

Wow. That looked horribly disgusting.

She tried to get to it properly and then realized she was going to have to remove clothes to get to it…and how the hell was she supposed to do that? He, just like Thor, wore an outfit that had so many layers, and all in leather, that it was going to be impossible to get him out of it. Unless…

“Jane, do you have some scissors? Like…something that could cut through leather?”

Jane stood up and moved to her still sparking equipment and nodded.

“Yeah. Give me a second.”

She tugged and pulled at a warped drawer, and managed to yank it out with a loud, scraping sound, and then pulled some out and handed them to Darcy. Darcy grabbed them firmly in hand and looked down at the material, trying to figure out where to start. Well, there was already a hole in the uniform.  About ten minutes later, during which she had wrestled with the heavy-duty scissors meant for cutting wire cables and the material of the clothes, she had managed to get it mostly off his torso, finding some clasps along the way which had made it easier to peel from his… _surprisingly_ …firm and solid form. It now hung off his shoulders in an undignified manner.

“You know,” Darcy mused out loud as she rinsed off the skin and rubbed antiseptic on the wound, “It must be some sort of Asgardian thing, because, _man,_ he is _cut._ ”

Jane glared at her, pacing as she tried to place yet another call to Selvig, who she’d been trying to contact for the past few minutes.

“Seriously? You’re going to comment on that right now? You do realize that he tried to destroy the world, right?” she said in a clipped tone, but Darcy just shrugged and said, “It’s not like he _succeeded_ , and, besides, didn’t he, like, save your life the last time you saw him?” Jane wouldn’t look at her, and Darcy couldn’t help but wheedle her as she continued to patch Loki up. “In fact, if I remember correctly, he laid down his _life_ for you, didn’t he?”

Again, rolling her eyes, Jane replied, “Yeah, well, considering he’s actually _alive_ , the whole ‘sacrificing’ himself thing really loses a lot of its’ merit…”

Darcy shrugged and continued cleaning him up, putting gauze over the wound, and then taping it off.

“And also,” Jane added almost as an afterthought, “He’s not Asgardian. He’s Jotun. Frost giant. Thor told me.”

Darcy looked down at his prone form and then pressed her hand to his side and said, “That would explain why I’ve been feeling that I’ve been touching an ice cube. I just thought I was losing feeling in my fingers,” she admitted, tucking her hands back under her armpits, trying to warm them up.

She stared at him a moment longer…and then Loki stirred.

“What…did I…”

“You passed out,” Darcy supplied, pulling out her bag of chips which she’d salvaged from where she’d dropped them, and crunched into another chip, her fingertips turning dusty whitish green from the cool ranch. He looked down at his ruined uniform and asked, “What…?”, and Darcy interrupted him, answering, “I had to get to your nasty injury, so the comic-con costume had to go. Also, I’m the one that fixed you up, so, you know, you kinda owe me a life debt, now, don’t you?”

He gave her a look, sat up further in the chair (which protested loudly beneath him at the motion), and then said, “Here’s an idea: let me _finish_ my sentences…”

Darcy shook her head.

“Nah. You’re too predictable.” She bit into another chip, and then said, while chewing with her mouth open, “Besides, you came to _us_ for help, remember? You don’t have any room to complain.” He glared at her, but she didn’t seem to be fazed, and asked, “By the way, how’d that whole gaping wound in your stomach thing happen?”

He attempted to stand, but instead fell back onto the chair, and then managed to get out, “I didn’t do what my brother told me to.”

At hearing this, Jane looked up from her phone and said, “Thor? You were with Thor?” Loki nodded. “Where is he? I mean, not like I actually care, or anything like that, I just thought that he was back on Asgard doing his duty, or, you know, off saving _other_ damsels in distress…not that I care,” she added a second time, looking back at her phone, obviously worried at the fact that she hadn’t been able to reach Erik. They needed his help, that much was for sure.

Loki smirked at her question…but then it faltered as he answered, “Last I saw, he was on a torn apart spaceship watching me die in front of him…”

Darcy arched an eyebrow.

“Isn’t this, like, the third time you’ve faked your death, now?” He didn’t reply, but she kept on talking. “I mean, after a while, no one’s going to really believe you’re dead, even when you _do_ die, so isn’t better to stop the-boy-crying-wolf-thing while you’re ahead?”

His jaw tightened, and he spat out, “It was _necessary_ , Miss Lewis, for me to do so.” He finally was able to stand. “Thanos is coming, and we have to find a way to stop him.”

“Thano-who what now?” Darcy asked with a full mouth, shoving the last few bites of Doritos in, absently wiping her fingers on the hem of her scarf. “If he’s some sort of big-bad, trust me, the Avengers can take care of ‘im, even if your brother isn’t there. I mean, you _do_ kind of have firsthand experience with how they kick aliens’ asses, right?” She laughed to herself and pulled her phone back out, moving to go sit on the lawn chair that he’d just vacated, and then added, “Chill out, dude. Sure, it’s the end of the world, but we’ve survived a few so far…”

He stopped her in her tracks by turning and levelling his gaze on her, and Darcy suddenly had the faint inkling of just how dangerous he actually was, even while injured. He had shed the remains of his destroyed clothes, leaving him in just his David Bowie leather pants, and was now pulled up to his full height…oh, boy. He was taller than his brother. He held his hand to his side, hiding his wince, and then took a step forward, so that there was barely an inch between them.

“Listen to me, _mortal_ ,” he hissed out, his hot breath brushing against her ear. “You know _nothing_ of the destruction and devastation that Thanos will bring to your little world, and you know _nothing_ of the cruelty that he can unleash upon you and everyone you love!” His voice lowered even further as he said, “I have borne torture at his hand, and he has _no_ love for any of your kind. He will turn your precious _Earth_ to dust if he wishes, of that I have no doubt…”

Darcy shivered, feeling a brush of cold rush over her skin, and she knew that it was from him.

Licking her lips, which were suddenly dry, she managed to say, “Why would he even want to come after us? If we’re so…small, as you say…then why us?”

Jane stood to the side, watching, unsure of what to do, feeling slightly helpless, but then Loki suddenly pulled back from her intern and gave Darcy a once over with his eyes that seemed to appraise her like someone looking at an animal for slaughter.

Finally, he answered, “Because you have something he wants.”

He then turned away, imperiously…but the effect was ruined as Jane’s phone suddenly went off, the X-Files theme song sounding obnoxiously loud in the still, desert night air. She scrambled for her phone (while Darcy discreetly tried to catch her breath, as she’d been holding it in in utter fear during the entire confrontation, certain that he was going to burn her into the ground with just his eyes), and then let out a sigh of relief at the voice on the other end.

“Erik, thank god!” she exclaimed, and Darcy took a seat, avoiding looking up at the god whose back was turned in her direction.

Her eyes flickered up against her will, however, at seeing the broad expanse of muscled skin…and a nasty scar that ran from under his right shoulder blade to the top of his left hip, and then disappeared under the edge of his pants.

“Okay, so you can make it?” Jane asked, suddenly acting oblivious to the fact that Loki was still on the roof with them. “Great. Great! So, we’re going to need a few things.” She paused and then said, “Well, yeah, after SHIELD sort of, you know, disappeared or whatever, so did all of our funding…along with most of our equipment. Yeah. That too. Thanks, Erik! You’re the best. Bye!”

She turned on her heel and faced Darcy, looking like she’d just won the lottery.

“Okay, Darce, we are back in business! Erik’s in Switzerland but he’ll be here in two days, and when he gets here we’ll have everything we need to track down more of the Einstein-Rosen bridges, along with any other deep space or sub space communications!”

Darcy lifted an eyebrow…and then gestured over at Loki.

“Uh, Jane, that’s great and all, but…what’re we going to do with him?” Loki glanced up. “I mean, he _is_ sort of here to warn us about an impending disaster, and, hey, we may not be the Avengers, but I kinda have the feeling that we should be helping in some way, you know?”

Loki grinned, and Darcy rolled her eyes.

“Oh, shut up, Mischief,” she shot over at him. “Just because I said you were right doesn’t mean that I agree with your methods. You tried to take over earth, remember?” He continued to grin. She groaned. She had the distinct feeling that she was about to be living her own personal hell with him over the next few days, weeks…however long it took the world to end and for that Thanos dude to come and ruin it for everyone. Suddenly having an uncomfortable thought, she added, “Uh, do you really think he should stay with us? The last time he was with Erik, he sort of, you know…messed with his brain…”

Her friend looked thoughtful at that, and after a moment shrugged her shoulders and said, “That’s just something Erik’s going to have to deal with.”

Jane then stepped up to Loki, looked him square in the eye.

“Loki, you know I don’t trust you.”

“Naturally,” he drawled. “If you did, I would very disappointed in you, to be honest, Miss Foster.”

Her lips tightened…and then she said, “However, given the fact that you _did_ save my life, as well as your brother’s, I am willing to offer a truce.” He smiled. “On one condition.” His smile fell. “I need to know the truth about something. The _entire_ truth.”

He extended one hand, and said lightly, “Anything you ask.”

Her eyes narrowed, and Darcy fidgeted in the awkward silence, until Jane finally asked, “What you said about Thanos torturing you, and that he would destroy Earth…is all of that true?”

The god grimly nodded.

“Every word.”

At this, she took a step towards him and pressed a finger into his chest and said, “You will help us. You will not complain, you will not use magic. You will treat Erik with respect, and you _will_ apologize to him. He had his reputation practically _ruined_ because of you.” Jane paused and glanced over at Darcy. “You will be Darcy’s intern.”

Both Darcy and Loki looked surprised at the last part, but Darcy was the first to react, spluttering and spitting out, “What the hell, Jane? You’re just going to throw him on me like some…some pet that isn’t even housebroken? How is this in any way fair to anyone, here?”

Jane levelled her eyes at both of them.

“I have to work, I don’t have time to babysit a god.”

“And I _do?_ ”

Jane nodded.

“Yep. Just make sure he follows the rules,” she said, and Darcy slapped back with, “You want me to make sure he follows the rules? _I_ barely follow the rules, Jane! Let alone remember all of them!” Loki smirked and, without thinking, Darcy slapped his bandaged side and he winced. She then barked, “Hey, I tasered your brother when I first met him, and I did the same to you. Twice.” She pulled it out of her coat pocket and shot him a look, with one raised eyebrow. “You wanna get to number three? Or, if you’re lucky, we can try for double digits…”

Loki then gave her a true smile and said, “You’re the one who electrocuted my dear brother?”

She nodded. His smile spread even wider.

“I like you.”

Darcy rolled her eyes. Yay. Another tag-along god.

 

 


	3. How to Keep A God Busy

They walked into the dimly lit apartment, and Darcy threw her purse on the table, ignoring the few pieces of electronic equipment sprawled across it. Loki followed close behind her, still only in leather pants, and she was internally grateful for the fact that it was in the dead of night and no one had seen them walking into their apartment with a six-foot-two shirtless guy in leather.

Yeah. Too many questions.

Thinking of that, Darcy quickly raised her voice and said, “I think I’ve got some of Ian’s old clothes in my room. Give me a minute and I’ll get you something to wear.”

Loki stood there, holding the remains of his uniform in his hands, and Darcy, irritated, gestured towards the couch, while Jane walked to her own room to change, leaving her all alone to deal with him.

“Sit…over there! Oh,” she quickly shouted, just as she was ducking into her room, “Don’t touch anything!”

He shot an eyebrow up at her tone, but then reluctantly followed her instruction, settling himself on the worn-out sofa that they had bought from the local Goodwill for thirty dollars. It made a distressed sound under his weight, and Darcy couldn’t help but wonder just how heavy he actually was. She rifled through her dresser and pulled out a long-sleeved dark grey shirt. Ian’s. She closed her eyes for a moment as the memories came back, certain that they would overwhelm her like before and she would start crying…but nothing came.

She let out a shaky breath. Okay, good. Progress.

Hastily, she dug around some more and dragged out a pair of jeans. They were the only men’s jeans she had, so they would have to make do.

She walked back out, fully expecting him to have made an illusion of clothes, but instead found him still sitting on the couch, his hands on his lap, his eyes set staring straight forward. Geez. That was a little creepy, to be honest. She would have been much more comfortable at finding him destroying or remaking half of their apartment.

“Hey.” He looked up. She tossed the clothes at him and he deftly caught them. “Put those on. They’ll at least help.”

He looked at the clothes and his lips curled up in a sneer.

“You _must_ be joking.”

Darcy pointed at her face and said, “You see me laughing, here? Put them on and quit complaining. By the way,” she added, tearing off her hat and tossing it in the general direction of their kitchen table as she walked into the kitchen, “I’m surprised you’re actually listening to Jane about the no magic thing. What gives? Don’t tell me you’re actually scared of her,” she rhetorically asked, snorting in amusement at the thought of a god being afraid of her friend. “Mind you, I wouldn’t blame you,” she absently tossed back at him. “She can be _pret-ty_ terrifying when she wants to…”

He shook his head and stood up, wrestling himself into the unfamiliar material.

“Not at all, Miss Lewis. It has nothing to do with fear and everything to do with respect.” She heard him shove his head through the shirt. “Despite what my brother might say, he still cares for her, even if she has decided to sever ties with him, and Jane Foster is honestly rather remarkable for a Midgardian…despite the fact that she’s a mortal…”

Darcy rolled her eyes and pulled out a yogurt.

“Gee, what high praise,” she said, shoving a spoon in her mouth, enjoying the blueberry bursting on her tongue. She then turned around just in time to see him sliding his pants down his legs and she quickly averted her eyes and exclaimed, “Hey, warn a girl, wouldja? You can’t just drop your pants in the middle of the living room!”

“And why not?”

Hearing the smirk in his tone, she fought the urge to simply turn and look. She took another bite of yogurt, and then said with her mouth full, “Shirts are one thing, but below the belt is another matter entirely. We have this thing here on earth called--”

He cut her off with, “You Midgardians are such _prudes_ ,” and she turned around with her spoon raised in indignation and was relieved to see that he had pulled on his pants. She then managed to get out, “Hey, other people might be, but _I’m_ not. Now, if…” She faltered. Damn. He looked _good_ in jeans. She swallowed, licked her lips, and finally finished, “If you’re dressed, then we have to find some sort of _use_ for you where you’re not in anyone’s way.”

His eyebrow shot up at that and he drawled, “Not in anyone’s _way?_ Oh, Miss Lewis, you _clearly_ don’t know who I am.”

Darcy snorted.

“Uh, yeah, actually I do.” She stepped towards him and jabbed his shoulder with her spoon. “Let’s see. Brother of Thor,” he rolled his eyes, “God of mischief, master of illusion, frost giant, Jotun born, _not_ a son of Odin, which mean you’ve got some other ‘son’ thing going on with your last name or whatever…” She paused and took another bite of her yogurt. She was proud when she managed to look him right in the eye…those strikingly green eyes. “…and my intern.”

His jaw twitched.

“A temporary situation.”

She took another spoonful of yogurt and slowly slid it off the spoon, neither of them pulling their eyes away.

She swallowed, licked her lips, and then prodded him in the shoulder one more time.

“Just keep telling yourself that, Mischief.” She then absently mused out loud, “Your powers aren’t working, are they?” He glared, and she rolled her eyes and quipped, “Oh, c’mon, you and I _both_ know that if they were, you would have _never_ come to us. You may have Jane fooled, but I’m not an idiot.”

They stood there for a long while in silence, Loki towering over her, only a few inches between them, the mood tense.

…and then Jane came out of her room in sweats, an old Culver University t-shirt, and her glasses, with her laptop tucked under her arm, and then slammed her door behind her. She stomped across the room and pulled out a chair from the table, the cheap wood scraping across the floor, all of it breaking up the stillness and the mood.

“We have a while before Erik’s here,” she said, flipping open her computer. “I have some contacts from the university, so I’m gonna see who I can get information out of.”

“Whaddaya want me to do with green eyes, here?” Darcy asked, shoving her thumb in his direction.

Jane looked tiredly over at him and let out a frustrated sigh.

“Just…keep him out of trouble. Can you do that much?”

Darcy mentally groaned. Great, just great. She’d given her the impossible task of keeping a god of mischief occupied. How the _hell_ was she supposed to do that?

\--

Several hours later, Darcy was at one end of the couch, while Loki was at the other, their eyes both glued to the television as Daenerys Targaryen walked out of the fire naked with three dragons at her side. Darcy had an oversized bottle of vodka in her hand, and was barely sipping at it, while occasionally passing it over to him, where he would take long swigs that didn’t even seem to phase him.

“You call _those_ dragons?” he muttered, and she retorted, “They get bigger the longer you watch. Like…massive size…” She gestured with her hands.

He ignored her.

She took another sip.

Jane still sat at the table, typing away, and then she suddenly yelped out, “I got a response! Uh, from…” Her eyes scanned hurriedly. “Oh my god. Stein. She actually answered. Hold on a second…” She paused a second time and then sat back in her chair and breathed out, “She got a message to Agent Coulson for me. My god…he’s still alive…”

At this, Loki sat up and turned to look at her.

“This wouldn’t happen to be Agent _Phil_ Coulson, would it, Miss Foster?”

Jane looked at him.

“Yes, why?”

He swallowed…and then begrudgingly admitted, “He was the one that I killed on the helicarrier.”

Darcy took another sip of vodka and said, smirking at him, “Huh, must not have stuck.” And she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or the alcohol, but she could have _sworn_ that he looked amused at her comment. So, she pushed it with, “A bit like you in that way, mischief…”

The corner of his mouth twitched a second time. Yep. He found her funny. For some odd reason, that made Darcy feel as if she’d accomplished something. It settled as a warm feeling in her chest…or, again, that just might have been the alcohol. It probably wasn’t the best idea, she mused to herself, to be drinking around a god who didn’t seem to be able to get drunk, but Darcy had no skills in babysitting gods, so she had to work with what she knew.

Jane, as she continued to read the e-mail, said, “It looks like several people from SHIELD have been doing underground work, trying to find out who’s still alive, and where allegiances lie, and…oh, god…her husband died!”

At that, Darcy put down the bottle and stumbled her way over to the table.

“Wait, you mean Victor?” Her roommate looked up at her in surprise, and Darcy reluctantly admitted, “I, uh, was offered a position at Nemo to be a media liaison. He kind of, you know, asked me in person at one of those countless science conferences that you’ve dragged me to over the years. He was kinda hot, and said I had ‘untapped potential’,” she flippantly added, using her fingers to make air quotes.

“And you turned him _down?_ ”

Darcy threw her hands up.

“Well, how was I supposed to know it was the opportunity of a lifetime? I was working with you and Erik, and I kinda didn’t want to give that up…” Jane smiled at that, but then Darcy added, “However, if I’d known that _this_ was going to be a part of the deal,” she pointed at Loki, who was still watching Game of Thrones, “Then I would have taken it in a second.”

Jane laughed and said, “Yeah, I don’t really blame you,” and Darcy plunked herself down in one of the unforgiving chairs, and then listened as Jane read the rest of the e-mail. “So, it looks like she’s stayed in touch with quite a few people…some I’ve only heard of and never met. Holy shit…Dr. Richards?” Darcy’s ears perked up at that name. “He’s apparently a part of this, too. And so is…”

And she proceeded to list off a series of names, and Darcy was surprised that she recognized more than a few of them. She’d been spending too much time around her.

Suddenly, they were both reminded that Loki was in the room when he said quite loudly, “What _is_ this thing?”

Darcy looked over at him…and she smiled.

They had a lovely, large Bengal cat that they’d rescued from a bad home situation, and it was currently making itself comfortable on Loki’s lap, claws digging into his thigh and his tail lazily wrapping over his knee, purring quite voraciously.

“That is a cat, and his name is Taurus,” Darcy said, still smiling, enjoying the sight. “He’s a big softie, just like you. Just scratch him behind the ears and you’ll be fine.”

Loki looked at her, obviously skeptical, but then carefully dropped his hand to Taurus’ head, his long fingers sliding behind the Bengal’s ears, and the purring intensified. Jane smiled, too, at this point, and the two of them watched as their pet made itself at home in the god’s lap, dropping his head to his paws, looking for all the world as if he wasn’t ever planning on leaving that spot.

Loki, who had been tense, slowly relaxed, and his fingers slid down further, scratching along the cat’s back. Taurus settled even deeper into his lap, butting his head against Loki’s other hand.

“Hmm…this beast seems more intelligent than its masters,” he murmured, bringing his other hand to just under Taurus’ chin, and Darcy quickly said, “I heard that!” and he smirked.

“I intended you to.”

She rolled her eyes.

Turning back to Jane, she asked, “So, with all this information, and the fact that we now have Coulson’s e-mail, do you think we can get some help?”

Jane shrugged.

“Honestly, I’m shocked that we’ve even gotten _this_ much information. Once Erik is here, we’ll be able to put together a better plan.” She started typing up a reply to Janet…and then glanced over at Loki on the couch and added, “If _he’s_ willing to help us, we should be able to find a way to contact Asgard for help…”

Loki looked up from the cat at her words. He then locked eyes with Jane over the back of the couch and said, “Asgard is gone.”

They both looked at him in surprise.

He swallowed, looked back down at Taurus, and then softly added, in a tone that neither of them had ever heard before, “We… _tried_ …to save it. But matters were taken out of our hands, and Ragnarok descended.” He paused a long moment. Swallowed. Looked back up at them. “You have no aid from the stars, I’m afraid. If Thor has survived,” he said hesitantly, “Then we might have a chance…”

Jane looked at him, as if not quite believing what he’d just said.

“Wait…what do you mean by _if_ he survived?”

He locked eyes with her a second time.

“The last I saw of him, he was with Thanos.” His hand tightened a bit too tightly on Taurus’ neck and the cat swiped at his hand, leaving three faint red marks, but Loki barely seemed to notice. “It will be a miracle if he survived…but if anyone could,” he added, sounding almost hopeful, “It would be him.”

The three of them sat in silence.

It was suddenly broken by a distinctive ding from Darcy’s computer. It was the sound for her Skype.

Confused, she dragged it across the table and flipped it open. She hardly ever used it, as she was always on her phone, and wondered who on earth could be trying to Skype her. She only ever used it with Jane, and with her parents once every couple of weeks. Who on earth could have…?

She stared in shock.

_“Hey, I know this isn’t great timing, but I’m coming out there.”_

Darcy stared…and then managed to reply with, “How the hell did you get this number?”

The familiar face arched an eyebrow.

_“You do know what I do for a living, right?”_

She nodded, and then asked, “Uh, why now? I mean, are you psychic, too? I know you’ve got the whole eye thing, but this is a bit weird and coincidental and we sort of have company that you’re _really_ not going to approve of,” she added, looking over at Loki.

_“Who?”_

Darcy gave him a tentative half-smile.

“Give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.” The man on the screen stared at her in confusion, and then his eyes narrowed. She then carefully said, “You, he, and Erik all used to work together. Erik’s coming back, too,” she quickly added, trying to perk him back up. “It’ll be like a welcome back party!”

His eyes narrowed further.

_“Loki.”_

She nodded.

_“Fuck.”_

She nodded again.

There was a long, awkward moment, and then he said, _“Never mind. At this point, I’ll take what we can get. We have bigger issues right now, I think, so I’ll be there tomorrow. Keep him_ contained _,”_ he added, emphasizing the last word, _“I don’t want to get there to find an empty crater.”_

“Don’t think you’ll have to worry about that,” Darcy said, an amused smile sneaking onto her lips. “His powers are sort of…limited.” Loki glared at her, but the man on her screen smiled.

_“Good to hear. See you then.”_

“You, too.”

They hung up and Jane looked at her roommate in surprise. At her look, Darcy lifted an eyebrow and said, “What? I have friends besides you and Erik.” Jane crossed her arms over chest, obviously looking for a better explanation, and Darcy caved. “Remember that thing at Stark Tower that we went to when you were working with Banner on that…you know…thing?” She nodded. “Well, he was there, we got to talking about renovations, and I happened to give him the name of an old friend of mine in upstate New York who does plumbing.”

Loki looked over at them…and then said, “So…how’s Barton doing?”

 

 


	4. Cellmates and Roommates

Darcy woke up to the sound of the alarm on her phone, blaring out Heat of the Moment, and she attempted to blearily grab at it, but only managed to shove it off her nightstand onto the floor, where it continued to mock her. Grumbling under her breath, she shoved off her covers and leaned over to pick up her phone…and almost tripped over her shoes in the process.

Finally, she turned it off.

Still groggy, she pulled on her shorts and trudged into the living room…where Loki was awkwardly sprawled on the couch, Taurus resting firmly on the pale line of skin that was exposed as his shirt rode up, seemingly perfectly happy sleeping on the god’s stomach.

At the surreal sight, she shook her head and moved to the kitchen.

She had a hangover.

Coffee. She needed coffee. Unfortunately, as she made a bit too much noise opening and closing cabinet doors, Darcy realized that they were out.

Fuck.

Groaning, she moved towards the refrigerator and prayed that there were still a few Red Bulls left…and then nearly screamed as she felt something brush against her bare ankle. Taurus. God. One of these days he was going to get her killed; he was _constantly_ underfoot, and seemed more attached to her than to Jane, which she didn’t understand, because Jane had been the one to buy him in the _first_ place.

However, as Taurus made his way further into the kitchen, she couldn’t help but smile fondly after him. She also wondered why the _heck_ he liked Loki. Weren’t cats supposed to be good judges of character?

As Darcy mulled that thought over she let out a sigh of relief at finding an unopened Red Bull.

Thank god.

She popped it open and savored the bitter-sweet candy-tart flavor on her tongue as she glanced at what else was in the fridge. Three eggs left in a carton, several open condiment bottles, a container of grapes that looked fresh, an unopened bag of whole grain, and several brand new lunchables. Ah, the food of kings.

Shrugging, she grabbed one of the lunchables, not willing to put in the effort to cook, but as she turned she encountered a solid wall of unmovable weight.

“Goddammit!” she cursed, some of her drink spilling onto Loki’s shirt. “Don’t _do_ that! You’re as bad as the cat!” She pulled back slightly and then edged past him to the kitchen table, while he looked at her in confusion, and Darcy added, feeling even more irritated, “If you’re hungry, then scavenge the fridge or the cupboards, but I doubt we have anything up there.” She gestured broadly to the kitchen, but he continued to stand there in the middle of the kitchen, and she rolled her eyes. “Great. Another clueless god. Just what I needed to start my morning…”

Even as she ignored him and opened up the ham and cheese lunchable, she could feel his eyes on her. She took a bite of cheese. A bite of ham.

She chewed. She swallowed. She reached for her drink…

“Why are you _staring_ at me?!” Darcy finally snapped, glaring at him as best she could with her pounding headache.

He shrugged, still looking imperious in just jeans and a shirt.

“Because it seems to bother you.”

Ugh. He was as bad as Taurus. At that thought, she mentally snorted. Maybe that’s why the cat liked him: they were both smug, mischievous little bastards who knew how to inch their way back into anyone’s good graces with simply a smile and a tilt of their head. Yeah. That was definitely why.

“Fine. Stare for all I care,” she said, taking another bite out of a piece of ham. “I’m going to finish this and then find some _use_ for you.”

He arched an eyebrow and replied, “I look forward to it, Miss Lewis…however,” he prodded, taking a step towards her, his hands going behind his back, “I am curious as to your brusque attitude towards me. Last night you seemed rather…shall I say, flirtatious?”

Darcy spluttered.

“Hey! I wasn’t…I don’t…what are you…I was not!” she finally managed out. “I was… _humoring_ you,” she finally said, less than convincingly. He gave her a look, and she snapped out, “Buddy, I have a hangover right now and I don’t have time to deal with your attitude, so you just can it and go back to sitting on the couch!”

She slunk back into her chair, and that was when Jane walked in through the front door, her keys jangling loudly, looking far too perky for that early in the morning, and Darcy was about ready to yell at her for leaving her alone with Loki in the apartment…but then she saw what she carried in her hands. Oh. In that case, all was forgiven. Surging to her feet, ignoring the way her head swam with the motion, she practically attacked her roommate and quickly grabbed the cup with a familiar green and white logo on the side, and pulled the pink and white box out of her other hand and barely got it to the table before snagging a chocolate covered donut.

“You are my goddess, sweet Jane,” she said as she chewed, and her best friend smiled.

“Thought that might cheer you up,” her friend said, putting her keys away. “I even got something for our guest,” Jane added, sending a look in Loki’s direction.

He arched an eyebrow.

“Here.”

He looked at the doughnut she offered him. He cautiously took it from her fingers and held it between his for a long moment before saying, “And…this is _what_ , exactly?”

Jane smiled.

“It’s called a doughnut. Sugary. Sweet. Horribly bad for your health.” She picked one up, took a large bite out of it and gave him a look. “Try it.”

He stared at it for a long time, even as Darcy finished off her own, downed several long gulps of her coffee, and then started on her second one. Finally, he took a tentative bite…and unexpectedly let out a soft sound. Darcy smirked to herself, recognizing that sound very well. The first taste of sugar in the morning.

“This is,” he managed out while chewing, “Remarkably passable…”

Darcy rolled her eyes again. The man was impossible. Instead of trying to engage with him, she finished off her second doughnut and then disappeared into her room to take a shower, forever grateful that they had a shared bathroom between the two rooms, letting Jane keep an eye on him for a while without having to unnecessarily expose herself. She needed a break. Immediately.

An hour later, she stepped out of her room in yoga pants and an oversized Bon Jovi shirt, toweling her hair dry…and was confused to see that the box of doughnuts, which had held an even dozen, was empty.

“Jane, why…” her voice trailed off when she saw Loki sitting back on the couch, Taurus on his lap licking at crumbs on his shirt and jeans…and taking an occasional swipe at the god’s sticky fingers.

Darcy held in a snort of amusement, and went and sat back down at the table, pulling out her laptop. For some reason it seemed fitting that the god of mischief had a weakness for sugar. She absently opened up her e-mail, not expecting to find anything except for some pleadings from some Nigerian prince, promising her thousands of dollars. She started to delete the spam mail, but then paused when one of the subject lines caught her attention.

_Pictures You Need to See – From A Friend_

Normally, she wouldn’t click on something so vague, certain that it was a virus…but something about this one caught her eye.

She hesitated for a moment, her fingers hovering above the keys. After a long, tense moment, she clicked on it.

It took a while to load, as the internet connection where they were was spotty at best. After a few _annoyingly_ long seconds, the first picture loaded. And Darcy was confused. What…what was she looking at? She tilted her head, wondering if was some sort of puzzle, but then looked at it again right side up.

Oh… Oh. And then… oh!

She pressed a few keys on her laptop, remembering the programming without even having to think about it…and then smiled to herself as the picture suddenly turned into lines of code. Ha. Yeah, she had skills. There were a few reasons why Jane kept her around, after all. Feeling smug, she glanced over the code.

And then her eyes went wide.

Holy crap. This was big news. This was…shit. It was…holy forking biscuits on a hotplate. Well, okay then. She closed her laptop and said as casually as possible, “Hey, Jane…do we still have that thing that Fury gave you, like right before SHIELD disappeared off the radar?”

Jane looked up from her computer screen.

“Uh, yeah. I think so. I think it’s buried in a box somewhere in my room. Why?”

Darcy said nothing and simply got up and walked into Jane’s room, tearing open the first box she found on the floor. It had to be here somewhere. It had to be here. It was small, an almost inconsequential piece of electronics. A very _dated_ piece of technology, to be honest, but it was about to save their asses.

Possibly.

She dug through box after box, feeling tension rising along her shoulders and up through the back of her neck. This was _important,_ goddammit, and she still didn’t know why everyone was contacting _her_ , and not Jane. Jane was the smart one. Jane was the one who’d figured out the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, the one who had taken one glance at Asgardian technology and completely understood it, and not dismissed it as magic, the way everyone else had been. _She_ was the one who knew what was going on. Not Darcy.

Letting out a sound of frustration, she dug into the last box…and let out a loud yell.

“Found it!”

“You found it?” Jane hollered back at her, and Darcy loudly replied while turning it over in her hands, “Last box, at the bottom! We’re freakin’ lucky that you don’t throw anything out!”

Darcy could hear the eyeroll from where she knelt in her roommate’s bedroom, and she grinned. Yes. They actually had a shot at saving the world. Maybe. Potentially. If they didn’t _royally_ screw everything up. Feeling a bit more hopeful, she walked into the living room with the pager in her hand.

She was thrown off balance (yet again) at seeing Loki sprawled comfortably across their couch, Hell’s Kitchen on the screen.

“This Gordon Ramsay is quite enjoyable,” he drawled, absently scratching Taurus’ back, who was once more perched on the god, lying on his chest and stomach, purring up a storm and nosing the god’s neck for more affection.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Darcy said, waving him off, walking over to Jane. “So, I got this weird, cryptic e-mail from an unknown sender, but I’m thinking it’s probably one of Fury’s many alternate e-mails, because I got this _picture_ sent to me, which I thought was weird, but then I realized that it wasn’t a picture, it was a file that was turned into a code that was _originally_ an html doc, probably turned from a doc.x document…” She saw Jane’s eyes glaze over, so she quickly finished with, “Anyways, what it said was to find that stupid pager that Fury gave you and put in _this_ code,” she added, shoving the code into Jane’s face.

Jane just looked at her confused.

“Is this supposed to mean something to me?”

Darcy stared at her friend, hoping that she was joking…but when she saw that Jane truly didn’t know what it meant, she quickly snapped, “I just thought that _you_ , of all people, would…never mind! What matters is that this code calls someone. Someone that Nick Fury _himself_ trusts. Now, exactly how many people do you think a one-eyed ex-assassin-spy actually trusts?”

Jane’s eyebrow shot up.

“Not many.”

“Exactly.”

From the couch, Loki said, “Two.”

“Huh?” the two girls said in unison, and Loki slowly sat up and stared at them over the back of the couch and repeated himself.

“Two. Someone like Fury would only ever trust two people.” He lifted a finger. “One, a person that everyone trusts. Agent Coulson.” Darcy slowly nodded, and he put up a second finger and said, “And two, a person that can always get him out of trouble.” He gestured to the pager in her hand and added, “I suspect that would be your second person, as Miss Foster has already been arranged contact to Agent Coulson, there would be no reason to give you that information.”

Jane perked up.

“Wait…so this means that if we put in that code, we’re calling in the big guns?” Darcy nodded. “And Fury _trusts_ us with this?”

Darcy shrugged.

“Not sure on that second one, to be honest. Actually,” she reluctantly admitted, turning the pager over in her hand, “It _said_ to only use it as a last resort, but we’re running low on options at the moment, and so maybe we should just--”

Jane suddenly stood up and tore it from her hand.

“No! We’re not out of options, yet, Darce!” She gestured widely as she said, “We have Erik coming tomorrow, Clint’s going to be here sometime today, and I’m just waiting for an e-mail back from Agent Coulson.” She then paused and reluctantly waved a hand in Loki’s direction, saying, “And we also sort of have a god on our side.”

“So nice to be noticed,” he muttered, but they both ignored him.

“So…let’s wait awhile before we go all end of the world, last resort, shouldn’t-be-done-unless-it’s-an- _absolute-_ emergency kind of deal, okay?”

Darcy’s eyebrows shot up at that.

“Seriously? The crazy, mad scientist, a guy with a bow, the ex-SHIELD agent, and an impotent god?” Loki spoke up in protest at her wording, but Darcy cut him off with a sharp wave of her hand and said, “Look, I don’t know what you call an absolute emergency, but we’re at the bottom of the barrel here, and I’m kind of feeling that we need some firepower!”

“Again, so nice to be noticed,” Loki sighed, turning his attention back to the screen where Gordon Ramsay was yelling several expletives at a twenty-five-year old hipster with a man bun.

Jane carefully approached her friend, putting a hand on either of her shoulders, and said, “Darcy. Listen to me. The big guns are already out there, taking care of it. If _they_ can’t take care of it, why do you think that one extra person will make a difference?”

“You did,” Darcy shot at her, and Jane looked surprised.

Just as she was about to say something, a knock came at the door. Feeling annoyed, but letting her keep the pager, Darcy walked over to the door and swung it open, about to yell at whoever was there…but then smiled when she saw a familiar head of dirty-blond hair and hazel eyes.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

A long pause…and then, “So…can I come in?”

Darcy smiled and attacked him with a hug and said, “Well, duh, bird-brain!” He fondly returned the hug, and then walked past her into the apartment, closing the door behind him as Darcy had already beelined for the kitchen, and yelled over her shoulder, “Want something to drink?”

“Water’s fine,” he replied, his eyes taking in the apartment…and settling on the long figure on the couch.

“Loki.”

“Barton.”

He slowly approached him…and saw their cat resting comfortably on top of the god, tail lazily wafting back and forth, enjoying the long scratches along its’ back and sides. Huh. Well, the cat seemed to like him. That was probably a good sign. Clint reached out to pet Taurus, presenting the back of his hand to him, which he sniffed…and then butted his head against his fingers. Loki gave him a sideways look but allowed it. Okay, so they were sharing the cat.

Clint looked at the television.

“Gordon Ramsay,” he mused out loud. “I like him.”

Loki smiled.

 


	5. Four's A Crowd

**Chapter 5 – Four’s A Crowd**

Clint sat at the dining room table, making himself at home, while Darcy amused herself by randomly picking things up and throwing them at him. He caught every single one of course, to her delight, all while talking with Jane about everything he knew that was going on.

“So, you’re telling me that we’re being invaded? Again?” said Jane, leaning back in her chair, her arms over her chest.

Clint nodded.

“Yep. I told Fury after what happened with Cap and Tony last time, that I was out.” Darcy snorted, and Clint nodded. “Exactly,” he agreed with her unspoken comment. “It’s like the mob. Once you’re in, you’re never really out.” He shrugged and said, “But if I have to be in, I get to choose who I’m working with, and I’d rather work with you guys. Jane, you’re just as smart as anyone at Stark Tower,” she blushed at that, “And Darcy’s the only one who’s ever hacked Tony’s systems without him ever knowing, so…yeah. Rather work with you.”

Loki slowly rose from the couch and said in his signature drawl, “Well, then, welcome to the team…”

Clint smirked.

He then tapped a finger on the table and asked, “So, Selvig’s coming?” Jane nodded. “When is he supposed to be here?”

“Tomorrow,” Darcy said, with a mouth full of grapes. Still chewing, and popping in another grape, she noted, “Hope he’s more sane than last time. I mean, sure, he’s recovered a _lot_ , but after what Mischief here did to his brain,” she pointed over her shoulder, “He’s still had trouble, you know… _adjusting._ Noggin’s still not quite secure.”

Clint nodded, but Loki, ignoring everyone else in the room, slowly approached her and asked, “Why must you _insist_ on calling me that?”

She grinned widely, still chomping loudly on her grapes, and then turned to face him, swallowed, and then answered, “Because it bothers you,” and then her smile grew a bit wider at seeing a spark in the god’s eyes. Yay. Points for her. Feeling a bit smug, she turned back to the table and said to Hawkeye, “ _You_ , on the other hand, I’m not worried about. You know how to handle your shit.”

Clint smiled and replied, “I try to, anyway. By the way, thanks for that plumber recommendation,” he said graciously. “The guy did great work on the master bath and the kids’ bathroom.”

“No problem,” she said with a smile, and then commented, “Oh, I have a cousin who does solid electrical work if you need it done. Also, he does it without any questions,” she added, clicking her tongue and shooting a finger gun in his direction, making sure he could see her as she spoke. “Clean and quiet.”

The man gave her an appreciative look and reached for the glass of water that she’d brought out to him and took a long sip.

As soon as he put it down, he looked up at Loki.

Clint still didn’t trust him, that much was obvious, but then again, Darcy knew that no one in their right mind would trust Loki. He was a _trickster_ god, after all. However, seeing him without his usual uniform and a bit more powerless…well, it made him seem…more human. Dangerous to be thinking about, she knew, but it also presented a few new ideas on who Loki really was. Everything she knew about him was second-hand, through Jane, Erik, and Clint. She needed to make her own assessment.

“So, you mentioned that Fury left something behind for you two to use in case of emergency?” Clint asked, interrupting her train of thought, and Darcy nodded.

“Yeah, a pager. Talk about dated, right?”

He nodded, and then reached out his hand.

“Can I take a look at it?”

Jane reluctantly pulled it from her pocket and handed it over, and his eyes scanned it intently, as if trying to find something that they hadn’t. Which was fully possible, with his senses, so she waited to hear what his assessment was. He lingered on it for a long time. Jane tapped away on her laptop, Loki had returned to the couch (along with Taurus), and Darcy just stared at Barton, being as annoying as she possibly could while being silent. It was a gift.

Finally, he broke the silence and said, “Nothing super special about it, but…” Darcy gave him a look. “But,” he continued, ignoring her look, “I’m seeing something in the ultraviolet range that isn’t particularly normal. Usually, I’d shrug it off, however, considering the circumstances…”

He let it dangle, and Darcy picked up the end of his sentence with, “…We can’t take any chances. Got it.”

She reached across the table and snagged it from his grip. She knew she was being a bit abrupt and grabby, but that was because she was still feeling antsy and irritated with her roommate. In her opinion, it was better to have too many options, than not enough. She had promised not to put in the code, but Darcy found her fingers sliding over the buttons on the pager, as if they were about to press the numbers in against her will.

She shoved it into her pocket.

Nope.

She’d promised.

Instead, she busied herself with checking more of her e-mails (all junk, except for a buy-one-get-one sale on her favorite brand of shoes), and then retired back to the couch with Loki, suddenly preferring his company to that of Clint’s and Jane’s. He didn’t say a word, just made space for her, and she nestled into the corner, watching as he flipped the channel over to some sort of nature documentary.

 _“The mother goshawk guards her nest fiercely, as her young are still susceptible to other falcons in the area. She gives out several warning cries,”_ narrated a pleasant, British voice as a loud, sharp sound came through the screen. _“…and it is enough to keep all but the more foolish predators from trying to raid the nest for an easy meal…”_

Darcy looked at that and thought to herself that she wished she was more like that hawk; fierce, respected. Not shunted to the side like some sort of dumb, cute little rabbit that needed protecting.

She shoved herself a bit further into the couch, and then glanced down at Loki. He was only halfway paying attention to the screen, his fingers running absently through the cat’s fur. Taurus was tucked between her feet and Loki’s thigh, the only barrier between them, and her cat gave her a look as if to say, _Why are you staring at him, again?_

Great. Now the _cat_ was judging her.

She thought about getting back up and leaving, because they really _did_ need to get food, especially since they were going to be hosting a total of three guests, one of which was a god…but she was comfortable. Instead, she pulled out her phone and started playing Candy Crush, enjoying the bright colors as they flashed across the screen. All was unnaturally quiet in the apartment for a long while, each of them doing their own thing.

Jane was still typing away and Clint had moved to the window and was sitting (she didn’t know how) on the scant three inches of windowsill, looking out over the street below.

They were all silent.

And then, unexpectedly, Darcy’s phone began to ring loudly, Asia blasting through its speakers, and she reluctantly stopped playing her game to answer it.

“Hello?”

 _“Miss Lewis, hi. You probably don’t remember me, as the two of us have only met a couple times, but I was hoping to contact you and ask for your assistance.”_ Why was that voice familiar? Darcy wracked her brain as the woman continued to speak, and just as she started to say, _“My name is Pe—”_ , Darcy interrupted her.

“Pepper Potts! We met at Tony’s…uh, whatchamacallit, banquet thingy! Yeah, I remember you!”

At her exclamation, Jane looked up from her laptop, and Clint glanced over his shoulder, his eyebrow arching in surprise.

_“Oh, good. Well, Miss Lewis—”_

“Please, call me Darcy,” she interrupted her a second time, “Miss Lewis is a bit too formal, for me.”

 _“Miss Lewis,”_ she continued, _“It has come to my attention that Clint Barton is currently residing with you, and that Dr. Erik Selvig is presently on his way to your location, as well. We need all the help we can get, at the moment, and I was wondering why you have two of our assets at your beck and call.”_

Again, Darcy was confused why everyone was contacting her and not Jane, and finally voiced her frustration.

“Okay, look, I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I know that for _some_ reason that I am completely unaware of, everyone thinks that _I_ have the answers, when I’m just Jane’s _assistant!_ Shouldn’t all you people have gone to her in the first place? I’m not even a _science_ major! Political science! It’s a different thing _entirely!_ ” she exploded, gesturing wildly with one hand as she clumsily got up off the couch, ignoring the widened eyes of her roommate, the amused smile on Clint’s face, and Loki’s curiosity. “I’m completely unimportant, but you and Fury and Clint and…” She bit her tongue. Best not mention Loki. “… _other_ people, all seem to be under some sort of delusion that I know what’s going on around here! Why is that?”

There was silence on the other end of the line, and for a moment Darcy was afraid that she’d just made Pepper Potts hang up on her. However, after a moment, there was a long sigh, and Miss Potts answered in a reassuring tone, _“Miss Lewis, I only called you because Dr. Jane Foster’s e-mail address and number are unlisted and are not allowed to be distributed to anyone other than those on her team for security purposes._ Your _contact information, however,_ is _accessible.”_

She wavered in her anger and frustration.

“Oh.”

Another second passed, and then Miss Potts asked, _“You said that Director Fury contacted you?”_

Darcy shrugged and replied, “Yeah…at least, I’m pretty sure it was him. Embedded message in an encrypted picture file from an unknown e-mail with information that only he would know about, so…yeah. Pretty sure it was him.”

There was a long pause, and she then said, _“In that case, I am certain that Clint has his reasons for being there…”_

“I don’t like your husband!” Barton yelled from the window, perfectly hearing everything that Pepper was saying, and Darcy could swear that she heard her smirk over the phone as she replied, _“And I can understand that. If possible, Miss Lewis, when Dr. Selvig arrives, if you could tell him that we at least need his latest projections on the equations that we last sent him, that would be most helpful. As to Barton’s help, we will refrain from contacting him. Thank you.”_

“You are welcome,” Darcy said firmly, feeling slightly proud of the way that she’d handled things so far. It could have gone much worse, after all. “Glad to help.”

They hung up, and then she looked over at Jane, who was staring at her with a slightly amused smile, and Darcy rolled her eyes.

“What?”

“You just yelled at Pepper Potts,” said Clint from the window. “That takes guts.”

She rolled her eyes a second time, tucked her phone back into her back pocket, and headed for the kitchen to grab another lunchable. Her stomach was already growling again, and she still wasn’t in the mood to go out and get more groceries. She took a bite of cheese. She chewed. Swallowed. Her stomach growled. Dammit.

“Hey, Jane, I’m going out to get food,” she said, stepping into the main room, grabbing her coat and wallet from the table. “We’re practically living off of condiments, which, normally I’m all for, but with having more guests than usual, I’m thinking mustard ain’t gonna cut it,” she added, giving her roommate a pointed look.

“Need extra cash?”

Darcy shook her head.

“Nah, I’m good.” She then grabbed her keys and said jokingly, “Anyone wanna join me?”, and was surprised when Loki stood up from the couch, causing Taurus to scamper off.

“If I have to spend one more second in this pathetic excuse for a dwelling, I will go insane. My cell on Asgard was more hospitable than this,” he bit out, and Darcy snapped back at him without missing a beat, “Then maybe you should have stayed there,” and she heard Clint snort.

Surprisingly, the Avenger stood up as well and contributed, “I could get out, too. Staying still isn’t exactly my style,” and Darcy saw right through his words. He wanted to keep an eye on Loki. It was obvious that even though he was putting aside his anger that he still didn’t trust him. She couldn’t blame him.

Shaking her head, she said, “Fine. Just don’t expect me to buy more donuts.”

And with that, they left.

 

 


	6. Grocery Shopping

**Chapter 6 – Grocery Shopping**

Darcy felt odd as she walked into the local grocery store flanked by a god on one side and an Avenger on the other. As she pushed the cart, she glanced over at Clint, who blended in just fine in his jeans, fitted knit top, dark blue, zip-front hoodie, and boots. He looked like a dad picking up groceries for a neighborhood barbecue. Loki, on the other hand…

Even in civilian clothes, he stood tall over everyone, his dark hair pulled back with one of Darcy’s own hair ties. On the drive over, she had insisted. It at least made him look marginally more normal.

But nothing could hide the fact that he was _fit_.

Ian’s old shirt was snug on the trickster god, as were the jeans, and even as he cast a casual glance at the bin of apples, one long-fingered hand reaching out to pick one up, it was obvious that he was someone used to people bending to his every whim. He even _stood_ differently than most men. His broad shoulders were pulled back into obscenely proper posture, along with his long legs and arms that complemented his body at all the right angles.

The god was so evenly toned and beautifully balanced, that it came as no surprise when Darcy saw a mom pushing her two-year-old in a cart almost run into a stack of soda because her eyes were solidly staring in the vicinity of his chest.

She rolled her eyes.

Just as he was about to bite into the apple, Darcy said loudly, “Hey! You bite it, you bought it! If you want some, put them in those little green baggies,” she added, pointing to the bags at the end, and was taken off guard when he actually did as she asked, and carefully figured out how to unhook and then open one of the plastic bags. He placed five into the bag, and then brought them back to her, giving her a dirty look as he put them in the cart.

Huh. That was odd. He had actually _listened_ to her.

Clint, however, was completely oblivious to the exchange as he was staring at the wall of salads.

“I didn’t even know that salad came in that many varieties,” he observed. “I thought salad was just…salad.”

Darcy shrugged, leaned forward on the cart, and said, “Yeah, well, to each their own. Personally, I’m a meat eater. Put a salad in front of me and the only way that I can eat it is if I drown it in dressing. Preferably thousand island,” she added, turning so that they were in the next aisle.

She grabbed a few items, and then tried to ignore the looks they continued to get as they did their shopping. The most interesting thing about those looks was that they weren’t ones of recognition. They were in a backwater town where the main form of entertainment was the local rodeo and craft fair, along with Bingo night at the community center. So, no, they weren’t marveling at seeing an Avenger and an Asgardian god. In fact, they were completely ignoring the god…instead, they were staring at Clint and Darcy as they loudly disagreed over the better brand of cereal. Some might call it arguing, but Darcy didn’t see it that way.

“We are getting Count Chocula,” Darcy argued, pushing her glasses up her nose. “The chocolate to milk ratio always turns out in favor of the chocolate.”

Hawkeye glared at her and pointed at the Coco Puffs.

“Bigger pieces. Do I have to say anything more?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, c’mon, you have _got_ to be kidding me,” she whined, slumping down even further over the handle of the cart. “Why won’t you just see reason and understand that Chocula is the superior chocolate cereal? I mean, look at the boxes,” she added, pushing herself back up and pulling down the two boxes, shaking them in her hands. “Based on box size _alone_ , Chocula wins.”

Clint arched an eyebrow…and then let out a sigh and said, “I have three kids. Do you honestly think you can change my mind about this?”

He took a deep breath, about to add another comment, but then Loki cut them both off by grabbing the boxes from her hands and shoving them into the cart with an exasperated, “Get them both and be done with this ridiculous display,” and then stormed off down the aisle, his hands shoved into his pockets, looking like an annoyed parent.

…and _that_ was when the absurdness of it all hit her: she was grocery shopping on a Thursday afternoon (all while hoping the world didn’t suddenly end because of some alien guy who had decided that he needed to fix the universe) with a god who’d tried to destroy the world and a man with Legolas-like eyesight abilities…and they were arguing over _chocolate cereal_.

Wow. Her life was officially weird.

Not that helping to save the world a few years earlier had made that way already or not.

Knowing that thinking on it too long was liable to give her a headache, she pushed the cart down the aisle, trailing after the trickster god, and grabbed two packs of pop-tarts as she went: one blueberry and one chocolate. No such thing as too much chocolate.

They moved on from the cereal aisle over to the soda and chips aisle, and Darcy didn’t even hesitate as she grabbed a party sized bag of chips and a massive can of salsa…but just as she was putting it into the cart, Clint’s hand grabbed at the base of her neck and he yanked her back and yelled, “Loki, down!”, who shockingly immediately complied, and a microsecond later, she dropped the can of salsa…and it exploded before it even hit the floor, and she heard someone scream.

And then Clint pressed her flat on her stomach on the cold, hard linoleum and Darcy heard sounds like glass shattering and a repetitive crack and echo over her head. She wondered what the hell was happening, and then her brain went, _You’re being shot at. This has happened before, Darcy. You remember the last time?_ and she stupidly replied to herself in her head, _Oh, yeah. I remember that. It sucked,_ and then Barton’s mouth was brushing against her ear, so she could hear him over the gunfire and through her now ringing ears, and he whispered into it in a hurried rush, “I have to get you to Loki, he’s got a better chance of keeping you safe than I can. Besides,” he paused and dragged her back an inch and a bullet lodged itself into the floor centimeters from her toes, “All you’re gonna do is ruin my line of sight.”

With that quip, he suddenly yelled, “Loki, take her!”, and a blur of charcoal gray and black slid across the slick floor and she was suddenly back on her feet, swept up against a firm chest and dragged to the end of the aisle, where she ended up staring over a very firm shoulder at a shelf of corn tortillas, idly wondering if Jane knew how to make homemade quesadillas, and how much it would cost to make enough for all five of them.

A sharp crack sounded directly over her head, which she felt, more than heard, and Darcy felt Loki’s fingers slide into her hair and pull her face into his neck and he muttered under his breath, “Reminds me of home. Everyone’s trying to kill me.”

He then tugged her slightly closer and pulled them both sharply around another corner.

Unable to keep from looking, she lifted her eyes from his neck and managed to catch a flash of a blue hoodie as it vaulted over top of an aisle of baking supplies, a whisk in the figure’s hand. A whisk? What was Clint gonna do with a…oh. That. Huh. She didn’t know a whisk could be used that way.

Her face was suddenly smushed back into his shoulder as Loki hissed, “Miss Lewis, if you could keep your head down, I just might be able to keep you from being injured,” and then he once more grabbed her effortlessly with one arm around her waist, her feet not touching the floor, and the shelves of cheese passed by on their right in a blur of yellow as he launched them down the back aisle, effectively getting them behind where the shooters were shooting from.

He then placed her on the floor, stood up and took out the hair tie, handed it to her, and then said, his voice muffled to her ears and sounding bored, “Might as well lend a hand,” and then jumped up and landed with cat-like ease on the top shelf of beer and disappeared towards the sounds of more gunfire and yelling.

Slowly, Darcy started to realize just what was happening.

They were being shot at. In a grocery store. Her ears were ringing, her side and front were sore from where Clint had pushed her down and the god had grabbed her, and she was still hungry.

And, in the midst of it all, Loki was acting like a melodramatic superpowered anime character.

She snorted. Of course, he was. What else did she expect? Thor had been the exact same way, which meant that it was most likely an acquired trait that came from years of sibling rivalry and Asgardian snob-ism. All of that ran through her head as she sat on the floor, feeling useless, every part of her aching. She didn’t even know how many gunmen there were. At least three, she mused, counting the number of guns she could hear. And that was when it occurred to her that she still might not be safe.

Her ribs bruised and probably at least one cracked, her ears throbbing, she slowly stood up, winced, and grabbed a heavy wine bottle. Thank god, Loki had gotten her to the liquor section. Probably the only place in the grocery store that had anything even remotely close to being a weapon.

“Let’s do this,” she said to herself, hefting the heavy glass in her hand, sounding much more confident than her arrythmic heartbeat told her.

As if hearing her, a man in black suddenly rounded the corner, but before he could swing up his gun, Darcy swung the bottle with all her might at his head. Instead of shattering, as she had expected it to, it hit his skull with a solid _thunk_ , and he went down like a wet bag of flour. She glanced at the label.

“Way to go Riesling,” she muttered under her breath, and then kicked away his gun and ducked around the corner that he’d just come from, too uneasy to stay in one place, and annoyed that her ears were still ringing.

She was in the cooler and picnic supplies aisle.

Shaking her head, trying to get rid of the brass bell in her ears, she glanced around to see if there was anything else that might help her in case another gunman came her way. Plastic water bottles, paper plates, foldable spatulas…not exactly a lot of options. She rolled her shoulder, which ached a little after swinging the bottle like a makeshift bat, and kept her eyes open, turning her head as much as possible because with how her hearing was compromised, there was no way she would be able to hear someone sneaking up on her.

Nothing. But from the odd throbbing in her ears and the way she kept on hearing weird, harsh echoes of what sounded like shattering plates, she assumed that they were still firing.

Darcy got to the other end of the aisle and peeked around the corner, towards the front of the store.

Now _that_ was an interesting sight.

Loki and Clint were both fighting off the gunmen, having already disarmed their guns from them, leaving them to hand-to-hand combat. Each one of them had two, which meant that there had been…she did some quick math in her fuzzy head…five. She watched, hidden, taking advantage of the fact that she could actually _watch_ them fight. Clint was harsh, rough, and had a style that was a mixture of middle eastern krav maga and just plain ol’ street fighting, whereas Loki moved like he was part snake, slipping in between every strike sent in his direction and striking back with devastating accuracy and speed.

In the midst of all of it, Darcy’s ears cleared just in time to see Clint knock out his last opponent and hear him yell, “Don’t kill ‘em, Loki! Need them for questioning,” and saw a look akin to disappointment cross his face, but he complied, knocking both of the men down with two sharp blows to the base of their necks.

It was suddenly still, the only sounds Clint’s harsh breaths, Loki’s deep sigh, and the soft sounds of crying coming from behind the registers, as the gunmen had apparently surged at front door and the few customers and two cashiers had been too scared to try and escape after.

Clint shot Loki a look.

“Keep an eye on these guys, I’ll get the civilians out,” he said, kicking one of them in the shoulder as he walked by.

Darcy slowly came out from behind the display of greeting cards, covered in salsa, the wine bottle still in her hand, and said, “There’s another one back there next to the Coors Light,” and pointed with her thumb. “Wanna drag him up here with the rest?”

Loki gave her a look, one eyebrow arched in skepticism, while Clint grinned as he calmly led the people to the front door, telling them that they didn’t have to worry or call the cops, that they were from the Avengers and that they would take care of it. Darcy stood there and absently swung the bottle by her knees, purposely looking in every direction but Loki’s, not entirely sure what to say to him after the whole incident. Finally, she levelled her eyes at him.

“Uh…thanks for that. You know. Back there.” She did the thumb thing again. “The whole saving my life thing.”

He shook his head.

“As much as it pains me to admit it, Miss Lewis, I believe you owe Barton your life on that one,” he spat out, as if admitting it was physically painful for him. “He saw and heard that first bullet coming long before I did. His reflexes are quite remarkable for a Midgardian.” He looked over his shoulder with narrowed eyes at the man as he accepted a hug from a weeping fifty-year-old Hispanic woman and drawled, “In fact, they are on par with those of an Asgardian…”

Clint finally got the last one out and as he walked back, Darcy couldn’t help but snark at him as she plucked off a piece of salsa from her sweater and popped it in her mouth, “So, we’re _all_ Avengers now? What’s my new codename?”

He smirked.

“How about Throwdown?” he suggested, motioning towards the wine bottle in her hand. “Looks like you can hold your own, and I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of that weapon. Especially if you’re the one wielding it,” he added, walking over to the register and pulling out a large roll of twine from behind it.

As he and Loki began to drag the men together and tie them up, Darcy nodded and said, “I like it. Simple and to the point. And it sounds _way_ better than, say, a name like…Hawkeye.”

He gave her a mock glare and then asked, “You said there’s one back next to the beer?” and she nodded. He looked at Loki, and the god rolled his eyes and went and retrieved the man, coming back with him dangling from one hand like he weighed nothing more than a heavy bag of potatoes. He threw the man down with the rest, and the guy let out a low groan and rolled to his side. Before anyone else could ask anything, Clint bent over to tie his wrists and Darcy approached him and raised the wine bottle in one hand about an inch from his face.

The shooter’s eyes fluttered open, he saw the bottle, and then his gaze slowly trailed up and met hers.

“Hey, dude,” Darcy said causally. “Why were you shooting at me?”

Clint arched an eyebrow at her wording, but looked surprised when the guy winced and admitted, “We were hired to take only _you_ out. The others were just collateral.” Holy shit. They were actually trying to kill _her_? She’d just been joking! He then said, “Not like I’m gonna get paid, now, might as well talk, right?” and at that she snorted.

“You didn’t take payment up front? Seriously?”

The guy shrugged.

“My first time.”

Darcy nodded.

“Ah, you’re a rookie. I get it.”

By then, Clint was done. He pulled out a phone from his pocket and made a quick call, and then came over to stand next to Darcy, as did Loki, and the three of them stood there and stared at the five men that had been sent to, apparently, take out Darcy. Yeah, she wanted to know why, but at the same time…she _really_ didn’t.

“Wanna finish the grocery shopping?” she suggested, and Clint nodded.

As they left, he put down ten, crisp hundred-dollar bills.

That would cover it.

 


	7. A Rocky Start

**Chapter 7**

“What the hell happened to you?!” were the first words out of Jane’s mouth as the three of them walked back into the apartment, none of them having come out of the fight unscathed.

Darcy shrugged and looked over at Clint and said, “Food fight in the chips aisle. He started it,” she added, pointing a mocking, accusing finger in the Avenger’s direction, and her roommate looked utterly confused and obviously didn’t believe a single word from her friend.

“What _really_ happened?”

“We were shot at,” Clint said, lugging the bags to the table. At her eyes going wide and her mouth opening to exclaim in shock, he shot out, “Let’s talk about it later, unpack groceries now, alright?” Jane nodded, reluctantly agreeing, and then helped them as they put the bags on the table and in the kitchen. Jane looked at all of the groceries in disbelief.

“Just how much did you buy?” she asked, looking at all the bags. “And how much did this _cost?_ ”

Darcy pointed at Clint again.

“He paid. I splurged.” She dug into one of the bags and pulled out a dark chocolate hazelnut bar and threw it at her friend. “Don’t say I never got you anything, roomie,” she sing-songed at her, and then proceeded to throw herself onto the couch with her own chocolate bar, not caring about the salsa on her, leaving all of the unpacking to their new temporary housemates.

Clint glared at her and drawled, “Really? You’re just gonna sit there and make me do it all?”

She gestured in Loki’s direction and said with a full mouth, “Hey, you goth helpth!”

He looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes, and she went back to her candy bar…but then looked back up and saw what she had missed. Erik Selvig stood next to the window, looking worried and distracted, wringing his hands, and Darcy was suddenly back on her feet and rushed to him, arms outstretched.

“Erik! When did you get here?” she asked, giving him a strong hug, which he returned…and then slowly pulled away, wiping away the bits of salsa now sticking to his cardigan. He then exclaimed, “Darcy! So good to see you again. Uh, I got here about fifteen minutes ago. Not exactly a lot of time to unpack or get settled, just yet,” he added, glancing warily where Loki stood, not that Darcy could blame him. Before she could say anything else, however, he said, “Jane told me Ms. Potts called and needed my research, so I’ll go ahead and send that to her first thing…”

His eyes kept on returning to where Loki stood at the far wall and Darcy couldn’t really blame him for acting so cagey.

“Yeah, look, about Loki being here,” she started to say, but he interrupted her, his eyes going wide and bright as he said in a barely constrained voice, “You can see him, _too_?”

Confused, she replied, “Well, yeah, since he’s sort of our roommate for as long as it takes for him to help us out against the big bad,” but then never had the chance to finish her sentence as Erik suddenly surged across the room, and lunged at Loki, both of his hands at the god’s throat as he pinned him to the wall, Loki not even attempting to struggle when he did.

“You _ruined_ my _life!_ ” shouted Selvig, as Jane and Darcy stood there, looking on in shock.

Loki wasn’t even trying to put up a fight, and both Darcy and Jane looked in Clint’s direction for help. However, all he did was grab an apple from the grocery bag and sat down in one of the dining chairs, casually propping his feet on the table and crossing his ankles, acting as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

“I don’t see a thing,” he drawled, taking a bite out of the apple as Dr. Selvig ranted.

“You messed with my _brain_ , you made me a _laughingstock_!” Erik spat in Loki’s face, and the trickster looked disgusted, and a flicker of some other emotion crossed his face, but he didn’t try and move against the scientist as he continued yelling and shaking him with every other word. “You made me an accomplice to one of the most… _horrible_ things I have ever witnessed! I lost what little family I had left, I had most of my research stripped away from me…I was locked up like an _animal_ in an institution! No one believed me, even when I was right, and even now…even now…”

His voice drifted, and that was when Loki slowly brought his eyes to Selvig’s.

Softly, as though talking to an injured animal, the god said, “I wish I could take it all back, Erik…” His gaze flickered over to Barton. “…I wish none of it had ever happened.”

Confused at the lack of usual biting sarcasm, Selvig’s hands slowly loosened on Loki’s neck, and Loki’s eyes briefly flickered in Darcy’s direction, but then he looked back at Erik, his expression almost pained as he added, “You are not the only one whose life was ruined during that time, doctor. You are not the _only_ one whose mind was played with like…like a puppet on a string.” Selvig’s hands dropped completely when Loki then said, “That feeling that someone is inside your mind and you can do nothing as they bend _every_ single _part_ of you to their will…it’s terrifying and humiliating…”

Darcy immediately understood. She may not have been there, but she knew about the mind stone.

Unbidden, she whispered, “Thanos…”

Loki nodded.

“We all do stupid things when we think we’ve been treated unfairly,” he said, slowly pulling away from the wall as Erik gave him more room. “I was more stupid than most and thought I could handle him…and I was wrong.” The apartment was still. “I regret every second I hurt you Erik,” he nodded at him. “Clint.” He gestured slightly with his hand. “And everyone else that suffered at my hand.”

He looked back at Darcy and Jane, and Darcy was surprised that she felt sympathy for him. Huh. Odd feeling that one.

Brushing it off, she stepped forward and broke the awkward silence with, “Well, now that everyone’s caught up, how about we have some lunch? I’m thinking sandwiches,” she said lightly, grabbing the bag with the bread and heading into the kitchen, Jane right behind her.

As soon as they were in the kitchen alone, Jane whirled on her.

“Holy shit, that was tense!”

“I _know_ , right? I mean, who knew Erik had it in him, you know? He just took on a god barehanded. Points for him,” she mused out loud, turning to open the bag of bread, knowing that Jane would get the rest, and wasn’t disappointed when Jane settled next to her and handed her ingredients and Darcy put them on the bread slices.

However, her friend retorted, “Actually, I was more thinking about Loki not doing anything. I mean, why didn’t he try and stop him? He could have.”

Darcy bit her lip.

“Uh, I’m not entirely sure that he could, Jane. I mean,” she added as she finished the first sandwich, “He’s kinda not exactly at full power, right now, you know?”

Jane looked at her with her brow furrowed, and her eyes narrowed as she asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Darcy immediately stopped what she was doing, the knife half in the mayo jar and turned and said, “Whaddaya mean what do I mean by that? He’s been at half power since he got here! Or have you not noticed the distinct lack of costume, sauntering, and magic tricks?” she asked rhetorically, and then exclaimed, “If he had his powers do you _honestly_ think he would be here asking for our help in something that we are _totally_ not qualified to help with? Well, maybe _you_ are,” she quickly backpedaled, at seeing Jane’s expression, and then finished exasperatedly with, “But _I’m_ not! And he’s actually been _listening_ to me! That’s what’s been wigging me out the most, to be honest!”

Jane just stared at her…and then slowly shook her head and said, “Wow. I feel like an idiot.”

“Well, if it helps, you certainly don’t look like one,” Darcy said helpfully, and Jane snorted. And then Darcy thought out loud as she went back to making sandwiches, “It probably wasn’t the best idea for us to leave those three alone, was it?”

At that, Jane’s eyes went wide, and she darted over to the kitchen door and glanced through to the living room.

“Still in one piece, though it looks like Hawkeye’s staying between them, for now.”

“Smart,” she said, finishing up a second sandwich and then starting on a third. Jane came back and helped her with the rest, while they both carefully listened for any signs of struggle. When nothing reached their ears, they assumed all was well. However, just as they were about to go back into the living room, Jane put a hand on her friend’s wrist and asked with a serious tone in her voice, “I know you and Hawkeye are trying to treat this like it’s not a big deal, but…you were _shot_ at? In the _grocery_ store?”

Darcy let out a frustrated and annoyed sigh.

“First of all, his name’s Clint. And second of all, guys shooting at me is, like, at the bottom of my thing’s-I’m-worried-about list, right now! To any other person, yeah,” she admitted, “It would be a big deal, but from what I’m hearing, we’re dealing with a possible world-ending situation here, and I don’t think that someone sending bad guys to kill me should really be at the top of our priorities, okay? I’m not exactly a key player in the world of superheroes. Throwdown doesn’t have any enemies, just yet.”

Jane still looked worried, but Darcy brushed it off with, “I’ll do a little digging on my own, but I think the _world_ is more important than one person, right now, you know?”, and then walked through the door with two plates and five sandwiches, her roommate trailing behind her with bottles of water for everyone.

The instant they were back in the room, Selvig stood up and said, “Oh, here, let me help you with that,” and took the plate with two sandwiches and grabbed two water bottles, and handed one of each to the Avenger sitting near him.

He was as far from Loki as he could be in that small room, and Darcy wasn’t surprised.

Sure, it may not actually have been Loki who had messed with his mind, as he was _also_ being played at that time, just as much a puppet as Erik and Clint, but that didn’t matter. Those kinds of things weren’t fixed with a simple apology. It was going to take more than just time, she thought to herself as she settled herself next to the trickster god wearing her ex-boyfriend’s clothes. Like the way it had taken her with Ian. That had fallen apart _spectacularly_ quickly, and they knew it was both of their faults.

As if reading her mind, Clint suddenly asked, trying to break the tension that had settled over the living room, “Hey, how are you and Ian doing?” and Darcy flinched.

“Uh, we’re not. Didn’t work out,” she said in a tight voice, taking a bite of her sandwich, hoping that he got the message. He did. The tension resettled even more thickly than before, and after swallowing her bite, she couldn’t help but quip, “This is fun. We should do this more often,” which caused Jane to snort into her water bottle, Clint to chuckle, and a faint smile on the corner of Loki’s mouth. Even Erik look slightly amused.

Feeling on a roll, she added, “I’m thinking we do a costume party, next time. Maybe order chinese? Play a bit of pin-the-arc-reactor-on-the-egomaniac?”

They all relaxed even more, and Clint added, “We’d need pizza, too. I don’t do parties without pizza,” and Jane added, “And lots of chocolate,” while Erik contributed, “Alcohol. I know the good Scandinavian brews and could get them cheap.”

Darcy glanced over at Loki, wondering if he was going to add anything, and was pleasantly surprised when he said, “I’m partial to magic shows, myself…”

She smiled.

They just might be a team, after all.

 


	8. S.H.I.E.L.D. is Being A Bitch

**Chapter 8**

After they’d eaten, Erik started setting up the equipment that he’d brought with him that had been tucked into the corner behind the front door, and Jane helped him, while the rest of them sat and watched television; another nature documentary, of some kind. They were purposely avoiding the news.

“Okay, so you brought it, right?” Jane asked, and Selvig nodded.

“Yes, of course. Oh, and I remembered these,” he said, pointing to some antenna-like objects that looked vaguely familiar to the intern, and Jane looked pleased.

“Oh, good.”

Darcy just stared in confusion. Despite all of the time she spent with Jane, she honestly still made things up as she went and didn’t have the first clue as to how everything worked. She was able to fake it well enough that Jane didn’t notice most of the time, but now seemed like the time to let the experts do their thing.

With that in mind, she settled onto the couch with her laptop, while Clint sat down next to her and turned on the television, switching it over to a local news channel, ignoring everyone’s groans when he did.

As Darcy started her half-hearted search into who might have sent assassins after her, she noticed the screen out of the corner of her eye and saw glimpses of people running in the streets of countries she’d never even heard of, as well as flashes of not-so-human weaponry, while some woman in a finely pressed business suit spoke over it. Great. They were being invaded. Again.

She tuned most of it out, even as Loki joined them by sitting on the floor, his long legs stretched out in front of him, Taurus resting once more on his lap. That cat had a problem.

Darcy hacked through back channels, attempted several searches, and only found one vague lead…and what she found bothered her.

Adrian Lewis.

The name showed up in her search a few times and she swallowed when she saw it. She only knew the name because of her mother. She had grown up with her mom and step-father, David, who was a great guy and had always been like a father to her, and the few times her mother had mentioned her birth father, Darcy had recognized the contempt and anger in her tone, so she never brought him up. Had never even searched for him, either, because she’d never felt the need. David had supported her through everything, treated her like his own daughter, so there was no reason to look for anything else.

But now her biological father’s name was popping up like a red ski flag on a slalom run, and she knew that it couldn’t meant anything good.

Finally having a lead, she nudged Clint’s thigh with her toes and said, “Hey, I might have something to go on regarding the shooting. It’s not much, but if I find anything out would you be willing to go all cloak and dagger for me? You know…like a private investigator?”

He nodded and gave her a close-lipped smile.

“Sure. Not a problem. Not like I’ve got anything _else_ to do.”

Great.

She glanced over at Jane…and smiled when she saw how excited her friend was over the equipment, her fingers flicking switches, her eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas. Selvig seemed just as enthused as his pupil, and Darcy couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened if she’d never met them. She brushed that thought off. It didn’t matter. They might not have been blood, but they were her family.

Feeling slightly better, she went back to her search, checking the name Adrian Lewis, as well as any aliases associated with him, and then she found it.

Well…shit.

Letting out a long sigh, she nudged Clint a second time, and he looked back at her. She handed him her laptop and pointed to the screen. He started to read the page she’d put in front of him, and she knew when he’d read it because his eyes went wide and he looked at her in shock.

“Wait…this is your _dad?_ ” he said incredulously, pointing at the computer, his eyebrows rising up towards his hairline, and Darcy nodded.

“Yeah. Looks like I finally know where I got the hacking genes, and why someone decided to put a hit out on me. The thing is, I’m betting that they don’t know who I actually am, you know…considering where I’ve traced the source on that information.” He gave her a questioning look and she reluctantly spat out, “S.H.I.E.L.D. They’re the ones that put the hit on me.”

At this, Loki looked up and both Erik and Jane looked over in her direction, stopped right in the middle what they were doing with comical effect.

“S.H.I.E.L.D.?” questioned Jane, walking over the couch and putting a worried hand on the back of it. “Darcy, are you sure about that?”

She nodded again.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure, Jane.” She sat up and grabbed her computer back from Clint and showed Jane the information that she’d hacked from a series of hidden files off a dark web site that was purposely scrubbed but had been retrieved with her own deft fingers and mind. “I’ve managed to trace this stuff back to S.H.I.E.L.D., but I have a hunch that it wasn’t _really_ them, you know? Ever since we met them, I’ve been really iffy on the whole secret government agency that spies to protect, sooo….I might’ve hacked them early on and kept tabs on them…”

Loki sat up a bit straighter at her words, his fingers still carding through the cat’s fur and remarked, “I approve, Miss Lewis,” and she rolled her eyes.

“Look, it’s not like they were shining paragons of morality, but _this_ …well, it seemed a bit funky, so I double checked some of the back-channel chatter through the dark web and found out that it’s not actually S.H.I.E.L.D….it’s some group named Hydra?”

Clint’s eyebrows shot up.

“You’re shitting me.”

Darcy shook her head.

“Nope. Not shitting you.” She tapped a few keys on her keyboard and brought up the information. “It’s like there’s a group of bad people inside of S.H.I.E.L.D. who’ve been pretending to be good guys so that they could make more room for the _really_ bad guys. Kinda feels a bit Nazi-ish, to me, to be honest…”

Clint piped up.

“That’s because they _are_ Nazis,” he hissed, standing up and putting the tv on mute. “Goddammit.” He started to pace and then said, glancing down at Loki, “What you’ve shown me is enough to go on and I know where I can start. I wanna nip this in the bud as quickly as possible because we can’t constantly be looking over our shoulders for hit men while we’re dealing with the end of the world, again, but I can’t do it alone. Loki…”

The trickster god looked up at him, one eyebrow arched.

“…Will you help me?” The god hesitated to answer, so Hawkeye added, “I know you won’t do it for anyone else, so think of it this way: Hydra would be thrilled that Thanos is coming and would most likely back up everything that he has planned, whatever that may be. Also, I need backup,” he casually added. “I’m not exactly a one-man army, and I kinda don’t wanna have to pull out arrows from my own leg, again, so having you would certainly be preferable over _not_ having you…”

Loki clenched his jaw and swallowed.

“Well, when you put it like that…count me in.”

Clint grinned.

“Good. We leave now.”

At that, both Jane and Darcy immediately protested, Jane speaking up before Darcy could say a word, “What? You can’t just _leave!_ We have a decent shot at figuring out exactly where Thanos is with this equipment, and might have a chance to--”

Loki stood up, lifting the cat in his arms as he did so, and drawled, “A chance to do _what_ exactly? He is a destroyer of worlds, Miss Foster, and you are nothing but a gnat to him. All of humanity is.” He stroked Taurus’ fur in a loving manner and then handed him to Darcy, admonishing, “Watch over her, friend,” at which she rolled her eyes, flushed slightly red, and then she took the animal and he added, “Take good care of him while I’m away.”

“Since when did he become yours?” she muttered, patting Taurus on the head and tucking him more firmly against her chest, while Loki rolled his eyes.

“This isn’t exactly my first choice, Miss Lewis, chasing after Midgardian thugs, but if it will alleviate the situation that you currently have the misfortune of being in, then I might as well lend a hand,” he drawled out, sounding annoyed and intrigued at the same time. “Also, since I finally have an opportunity to remove myself from this miniscule dwelling, I will take it _gladly_ …”

Ah. So _that_ was why he was saying yes.

Darcy rolled her eyes at him, but all he did was smirk back at her, as though amused by her reaction. She ignored it and retorted, “I’m pretty sure the only who’s going to notice that you’re gone is the cat,” and for some odd reason, he smiled even wider.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he drawled as Clint grabbed the bag he came with and then walked to the door with Loki trailing behind him and Darcy yelled, “It was meant to be an insult!” and he turned just before he walked out and threw back at Darcy, “Stay safe, Miss Lewis…I would hate to have to come and _rescue_ you again…”

She gaped and then flustered out, “Re--? Are you kidding me? How in _any_ way was the grocery store--!”

The door slammed closed.

Darcy fumed.

Jane snorted.

Erik said nothing, and turned back to the equipment and muttered, “Now that they’re gone, I can concentrate. Jane, I need your help with this,” he gently prodded, and she turned back to help him, while Darcy held the cat and stared at the door.

An Avenger and a god were on their’ way to take down the people who had just tried to kill her whilst in the middle of the world most likely ending. She wasn’t sure if she should feel guilty or not, but the guilt still ate at her. Why were they wasting their time with something so small? How did she even matter in the larger scheme of things?

She gently squeezed Taurus, who purred back at her as if trying to make her feel better, and then put him back down on the floor.

He darted towards the kitchen and she followed him, pulling down a large bag of cat food from the counter and pouring some into his bowl. As he munched down on his food, his tail wrapped around her ankle in an almost loving way and she smiled. It was as if he was actually following Loki’s command to watch over her…which he _wasn’t_ , obviously, because he was a cat, after all, and didn’t understand people. She moved to walk away, and suddenly Taurus’ head came up and he yowled at her…and then took a step towards her and batted at her calf and gave her a stare as if to say, _Where do you think_ you’re _going?_

Darcy arched an eyebrow. Well, okay then.

She walked back over and sat down on the floor next to the feline, and he went back to eating, his tail once more resting on her.

“Wish my life was a simple as yours, buddy,” she mused out loud, reaching out and scratching behind his ears, and he gave a low chirruping noise from the back of his throat, as if answering her. “Eating, sleep, get love and attention whenever you want. Not a bad life.”

He continued to eat.

Darcy thought on what Hawkeye and Loki were doing and _why_ they were doing it.

Hey, it wasn’t _her_ fault her dad was on Interpol’s "Most Wanted" list.

 


	9. Loki is Luke (And Takes Up Most of the Bed)

**Chapter 9**

Loki and Clint ducked onto the plane, and Clint couldn’t help but chuckle as Loki gripped at the arm rests, and asked rhetorically, “What? Scared of heights?”, to which the trickster god quickly hissed out in reply, “Considering all of my experiences with heights have ended quite badly, then _yes_.”

The archer raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, and settled back into his first-class seat and pulled out the tablet that he’d taken from Selvig’s pile of equipment before they’d left.

“Okay, according to Darcy’s hacking skills, which, by the way, I did _not_ know she had and will admit make me slightly nervous, her father is in San Francisco and--” He turned the tablet toward the god. “—It looks like he originally worked for Hydra, but now has a job working for some group called the Life Foundation.”

Loki glanced at the screen and then closed his eyes and muttered, “So we are going there _why?_ ”

Clint tapped the screen and read some more of the file that Darcy had pulled up, making sure he had it right.

“Because from what data she managed to recover, Hydra went after her because they couldn’t get access inside the Life Foundation, where it seems Adrian Lewis works and lives full-time. They probably thought that by going through her, they could draw him out…”

“And that obviously didn’t work as it appears that they are estranged,” Loki finished for him, his voice strained and his eyes pinched shut as the plane took off from the runway.

The Avenger nodded.

“Yep. Exactly.”

The instant they were at cruising altitude, Loki’s hands slowly unclenched.

Checking up and down the airplane aisle, Clint discreetly pulled out his phone and made a call to Darcy’s cousin. The instant the two of them had arrived at the airport, he had called her and told her that they were headed to San Francisco and she’d immediately said, “Oh, you should _totally_ stay with my cousin! He’s married to some hotshot lawyer, plus he’s got mad skills as a surgeon, so they’ve got a _really_ sweet pad with a lot of extra room. Here, lemme give you his number,” and she’d given it to him.

The phone rang once. Twice. And then—

_“Hello?”_

“Hi, Mr. Lewis, this is Clint, a friend of Darcy’s. She said that you had--”

 _“Oh, Darcy told me you would be calling!”_ he interjected. _“Of course, you can stay. She told me all about you and your partner and how you two are looking for a place in San Francisco. Like I said, we’ll be glad to put you up for the night.”_

Partner? What did she tell him…and then he figured it out. And he inwardly fumed. He was going to kill her.

Clenching his jaw, he said, “Ah, yes. Me and my… _partner._ ” He shot a sideways glance at Loki, who was finally settling in his chair, and then added, “Yes, we’re looking for something with a nice view. Good kitchen. Nothing super fancy, but enough to get by. I’m in…acquisitions. My partner’s an art critic.”

 _“So, you have a decent budget. Good. You’ll need that in this town. Do you need me to rent you a car?”_ Daniel asked in an absent tone, as if he was doing something else while talking with him, and he replied, “No, we have that covered. But thanks for the offer. We’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

They said their goodbyes and hung up.

Clint immediately plugged his headphones into the laptop, losing himself to the strains of Barbara Streisand, ignoring Loki. The plane ride wasn’t going to be a long one. A whopping hour and a half. He could deal with them being silent for that long. But then he glanced back over at Loki and realized just how much he would stand out in such a crowded city, even while in civilian clothes. He had to have at least some of his abilities back, by now. He would wait until they were off the plane to find out.

Just as expected, they disembarked an hour and a half later, and they instant they landed, Clint turned to Loki and tugged him to the side and said, “You’re gonna stand out like a sore thumb. Tell me you have some magical juice, just enough to change your appearance. Can you?”

The god glared at him and then muttered, “I might. Give me a moment.”

He ducked into the bathroom nearest the car rental and came out a few minutes later, and Clint had to do a double take at what he saw.

The man was blonde. With a goatee and black-rimmed glasses. And he was wearing a textured Henley, distressed but fitted jeans, and boots, along with a leather cuff on his wrist; he looked like he had stepped out of a hipster magazine. Well…well, then.

“Good. Let’s go.”

No need to linger on it more than he had to. They left the airport as quickly as they could, and as they drove up to the address Clint couldn’t help but notice how well the god of mischief blended in with the local population, and now he felt as if _he_ was the one who stood out. They stepped out of the car, and Loki seemed confused as Clint hooked his arm into his and tugged him up the walk, resisting slightly at the younger man’s manhandling, or god-handling, as it was.

He rang the bell, wrestled Loki’s arm into submission, and glared at him and said, “Follow my lead, partner.”

The god looked completely confused when the door opened and a man in his thirties answered, wiping a dishtowel between his hands and said, “Hi, you must be Clint! And this is your partner?” He gestured towards Loki, but before Loki could open his mouth to say a word, Clint cut him off and answered, “Yes, this is my partner, Luke. We’re just wondering if we could freshen up before dinner.”

Daniel opened the door the rest of the way and nodded.

“Of course. Come on in.”

Loki glared at him but seemed to pick up on his lead and said, “You have a lovely home,” and deftly slipped his arm out from Clint’s, and maneuvered his hand to Clint’s lower back and added, “Thank you, again, for letting us stay for the night. We should be out of your way by tomorrow evening.”

“So soon?”

Clint nodded.

“Yep. We have a good idea of what we want, and we know where to find it,” he replied, moving out of Loki’s reach and then turning and saying, “Luke, sweetie, how about you go upstairs and get some rest before dinner. I know how easily you get jetlagged,” and glared at the god. Loki simply smirked, but nodded and replied, “Of course, darling,” and disappeared up the stairs as Daniel yelled up to him, “Last door on the left!”

Clint then turned back to Daniel and said, “Again, thank you for your hospitality. If we need to come back at a later time, I hope it wouldn’t be an imposition to--”

Mr. Lewis raised and hand and waved it off, interrupting him, “Oh no, not at all. Darcy’s my favorite cousin, anyways. Only one in the family that doesn’t treat me like a pariah for leaving New York. As much as I love it, San Francisco is the only place that feels like home to me, anymore.”

Clint nodded.

“I get that.”

He then politely waved him off and went upstairs to the bedroom…and found Loki standing just inside the door, his disguise still intact, staring at the bed with an arched eyebrow.

The god then pivoted on his heel and shot a hard look at the Avenger and growled out, “I’m _not_ sharing a bed.”

\--

When Clint woke up, Loki was sprawled across the bed, one of his ridiculously long and heavy legs stretched across Clint’s, like an abnormally heavy starfish. Clint grunted as he hefted the leg off of him and then said, none too quietly, “Get the hell up. Want an early start,” but Loki simply let out a grunt and he could have sworn he heard him mutter in his sleep, “Darcy…flerken,” but brushed it to the side.

It really wasn’t important, and he _really_ didn’t care what the god was dreaming about. He just wanted to get the job done. He switched out his shirt, checked the laptop for more information, got an address, and then went back to the bed and slapped Loki’s leg and yelled at him.

“Get up!” He shot up from the bed, his disguise rippling and dropping as he did, and Clint barked at him, “Hey! Need you blonde and incognito, right now. Think you can manage it for a few hours?”

He groaned, but the disguise went back up.

The two of them headed back downstairs and found Daniel’s girlfriend, Anne, standing at the stove in a finely pressed business suit, flipping two omelets. She looked up as they walked in and said in a bright and cheery tone, “Look who’s up bright and early! I had a feeling you two might be early risers, so I took the liberty of cooking you something. I don’t have to be into work for about an hour. Dan, of course, is already at the hospital. He works the _early_ early shifts.”

She moved the omelets to two plates and put them on the island counter and gestured for the two of them to sit.

Clint arched an eyebrow at Loki, and he tilted his head. Reluctantly, he followed Clint to the island, where they sat down and each took a bite from the breakfast that Anne had so graciously made them, and Clint smiled and nodded in her direction.

“Very nice, Miss Weying. Thank you, for going to the trouble for us.”

He elbowed Loki.

“Ah, yes,” the god said at being prompted, “This is quite good. Thank you. Much appreciated,” and he took another bite.

She shook her head and brushed it off and said, “Oh, please, this isn’t a problem for me.” She put the pan in the sink and wiped her hands off with a towel and then said, “I rarely get the chance to do this, as Dan likes to grab his breakfast from the hospital commissary. This is a nice break.”

She looked as if she was about to say something else, but then her phone rang, and she looked at them apologetically as she answered it.

Without meaning to, they both listened to her half of the conversation.

“Hello? Oh, hey, Eddie.” A long pause. “No, no information, yet, but you know that you are the first person I will call with information regarding the Life Foundation…” Both of them perked up at that. “Yes. …Yes. …Yes, Eddie, now will you please stop calling me? I will call _you…_ yes, of course. Dinner on Sunday night with me and Dan. Looking forward to it. You, too. Bye.”

She hung up and then said, “Sorry about that. An old friend.” She then walked out of the room, tossing over her shoulder as she passed into the foyer, “If you need to stay another night, just ask! Like Dan said, we have the room.”

Both of them nodded, and then instant she walked out the front door, Loki pivoted towards Clint on his stool and drawled, “The Life Foundation? That seems too coincidental to be a…coincidence.”

Clint nodded.

“Unfortunately, you may be right about that. But, for now, let’s go out and do our own digging.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out two id’s on lanyards with the Life Foundation’s logo on them. “I printed these up after you passed out last night. They should get us into the building, and from there…well, I figure we’ll figure something out. I’m not all that good at plans, to be honest. I prefer to…improvise. I’m guessing that you don’t have any objections?”

At that, Loki smirked.

“I like your style, Barton.”

He rolled his eyes and groaned, “Dear god, I hope dragging you out here wasn’t a mistake…”

The god just smiled enigmatically and said, “If you recall, I volunteered for this mission.” He took another bit of the omelet in front of him, swallowed, and then said, “Personally, I am looking forward to more subterfuge. I can’t help but notice that you seem… _less_ than enthusiastic…”

He let it linger and then Clint let out a frustrated sigh and said, “Look, I’m just trying to keep Darcy safe. And I’m also trying to keep my mind off of everything that you told us about Thanos.”

Loki paused.

“Fair enough. So,” he drawled, standing up and gesturing widely with his hands, “Shall we?”

“Sure. Just don’t get me killed.”

The god smirked a second time.

“No promises.”

Clint groaned.

 

 


End file.
